Return to the Past, NOW!
by Teen-Lyokofan7777
Summary: A return in time reverses EVERYTHING in SIGHT. No one knows anything, but a certain girl knows everything. Death has been reversed. Pairings: JxA, OxSam, WxSissi later chaps , YxU, CxOC. What if I was there?
1. Prologue

Return to the Past, NOW!

Disclaimer: Don't own Code Lyoko.

"Well," said Yumi, smiling, "Good bye XANA, hello FREEDOM!"

Odd, after talking to Jim Morales, the Phys. Ed teacher, nodded.

Aelita smiled as she walked beside Jeremie, hand-in-hand.

Ulrich uncharacteristically did a jump in the air that ended with a well-timed flip.

"Well," said Jeremie, "It's over!"

"No more towers," said Aelita.

"No more algorithms," said Jeremie.

"No more monsters," said Odd. "'Though I did miss the Kankrelats."

"I remember when I was on Lyoko's Ice sector that three of them were on my trail," Aelita said.

"Remember when I accidentally shot a fan through the wall that Aelita created," said Yumi.

"Yeah," said Ulrich, "And I told you that you 'could do better than that!'"

Odd smiled.

"Remember when Kiwi reloaded my laser arrows?" he asked Jeremie.

"Yes, I do," said Jeremie.

"I thought it was you who did it when I did a laser arrow at William," said Odd.

"I misfired an energy field that day," said Aelita.

"And directed it at me," joked Odd.

Everyone laughed as the gang headed to Jeremie's dorm to enter one last entry to his Lyoko diary.

"Everyone ready," asked Jeremie.

BEEP!

BEEP!

BEEP!

"What?" Jeremie asked.

"The super-scan," Aelita asked fearfully.

"Oh, God, NO!" shouted Yumi.

A timer showed up on the screen. Thirty minutes, counting down, flashed.

"It looks like a return to the past!" said Jeremie.

Everyone gulped. "Can't you reverse it?" said Ulrich.

Jeremie typed frantically on the keyboard, but all that came up were (!)'S.

"I-I can't!" said Jeremie fearfully.

"It's the end of the world as we know it!" shouted Odd.

"This is bad times three," said Aelita.

"Quadruple that," said Jeremie. "I can't stop the return in time, a tower has just been activated, and I don't know what to do."

"The gods must be angry with our luck and is punishing us by having this happen," shouted Ulrich.

"No! That can't happen," said Jeremie.

"We have to get to the factory," said Yumi.

"Yumi's right," said Odd.

"Since _when_ do you take my line," said Ulrich.

"Since you weren't _quick enough_," shouted Odd.

"Everybody quiet," said Jeremie. "Fighting on Earth doesn't solve anything!"

"Except when you are in DANGER!" said Yumi.

Kiwi, who was with Odd after they shut down Lyoko, barked.

"We have to get to the factory," Yumi repeated.

"You've said that already—" Jeremie was cut off by a white light that engulfed everything.

Aelita decided to try to beat the Return to the Past bubble. She ran out of Jeremie's room and ran down the stairs. She passed Jim. "Aelita," he yelled, "why are you running?"

"Sorry! Can't explain; could but couldn't, see you!" she yelled.

"Eh…?" Jim asked.

She ran passed her new friend Sissi. "Aelita, what's going on?" Sissi asked.

"It's complicated to understand!" Aelita said as she grabbed the raven-haired girl by the wrist, forcing her to run with Aelita.

"Is there something that I should know?" asked Sissi.

"No," said Aelita.

"There must be—" Sissi was cut off, too.

Aelita stopped, but it was a costly mistake. The bubble engulfed all of Earth, to the time that Jeremie started the computer…


	2. XANA Reawakens

**Disclaimer: Don't own Code Lyoko.**

**Claimer: Cassidy is mine and so are some hints in the plot.**

**Okay, Cassidy knows all (that's the certain girl in the summary) of the events of Code Lyoko. It's a "What would happen if I were in Code Lyoko?" deal. Also, the characters (minus Cassidy) will have random flashbacks in the fan fiction, so hang loose on that.**

October 8th, 2004

A brown-haired girl stood at Kadic's gates, nervous. This year she'll be in Kadic and she didn't know anybody at all. She did remember a show in which some teens go to a virtual world **(A/N: Remind you of anything? End A/N). **She hoped to have a wonderful time at Kadic.

October 9th, 2004 Morning

Jeremie Belpois looked around for some parts for his mini robots. He searched inside Mrs. Hertz's room. "She must have some scrap around somewhere!"

Just then a brown-haired girl, about 13, appeared. "Hey," she said. "If you're looking for some scrap for your robots, go by the abandoned factory after classes at night! It may help!"

"Thanks! Who are you?" asked Jeremie.

"My name's Cassidy McGuire," she said. "I'm a bit new around these parts."

"My name is Jeremie Belpois," said he.

"I also have something to add, too," said Cassidy.

"Yeah, really," he asked.

"Yep," she hinted. "If you look at a somewhat screen in that factory and you say, 'Artificial Intelligence, are you there?' or something and it asks you for a different name, call her/him/it 'Aelita!' I'm sure she'll be delighted!"

"Thanks for the tip," said Jeremie. "Who do you have for classes?"

"The principal said that I have the same classes with two boys named Jeremie Belpois—" Jeremie smirked as he heard her butcher his last name "—and Ulrich Stern."

"Well, you've just met Jeremie Belpois," said Jeremie.

"I have?"

"You're looking at him!"

Cassidy looked at the blond-haired boy. He looked to be a genius.

"You're Jeremie Belpois, and I didn't know. Oh, my word, I'm meeting you!" she yelled excitedly.

"Well, Cassidy, this is Kadic," he said, trying to introduce the brown-haired girl to Kadic's classes.

**Later that night**

Jeremie was up in his room, preparing for Mission: FSSITF (find some scraps in the factory). He took nothing with him for it was for a different cause. He went to the factory alone. He followed Cassidy's interesting suggestion.

He saw an elevator, and as he walked toward it, a flashback appeared out of nowhere.

**FLASHBACK #1**

_He was standing at the elevator door with his Phys. Ed teacher, Jim, telling him the secrets of…something. _

"_And that's what we're going to do today!" he said as he pressed a button on the elevator._

**END FLASHBACK**

"Where did that come from?" he said to no one in particular as he pressed the down button on the elevator.

What he didn't know was that he'd been at the factory before, and that he was going in a second time.

There, he discovered the super computer for the second time. He grabbed the handle and said, "I hope I'm not going to regret this in a minute. Okay, go!" He turned on the computer.

A huge wind knocked his hair out of place, and, as he rode up in the elevator, straightened it.

Jeremie went up, sat in the, as another said, "Cushy chair", and typed on the computer. "Now, let's see what you've got under the hood, my friend!" he said as he pressed enter.

A girl showed up onscreen. "Wow," he said. The pink-haired girl awoke. "What's all this…a video game?"

"Who-who are you? Where-Where am I!" she asked. Jeremie's glasses fell from his face.

* * *

FCFEFAF **(A/N: Piano sequence Credited to Timely)**

* * *

Oct. 10th, 2004

The science room was empty. Well, except for Cassidy and Ulrich, who was with Cassidy at the time, being there.

"Hey, Ulrich," she said, "did you know that you are going to get a roommate soon?"

"No," he said. "What's his name?"

"His name is, get this, Odd Della Robbia!"

"McGuire, did you have some kind of crazy dream or something?" he asked. "Odd is not a name."

"I'm serious," said Cassidy. "His name is Odd! If you don't believe, wait until he says, 'Are you Ulrich Stern?' and then you say, 'That depends! Who wants to know?'"

"That might be crazy," said Ulrich.

"It's true!" said Cassidy, stressing the point.

"I'll see this 'Odd' character when I see him!"

The bell rang, and other students, including Jeremie and Odd, came in.

"Uh, are you Ulrich Stern?" said the purple-clad boy.

Ulrich turned to him. "That depends!" he said. "Who wants to know?"

"Odd Della Robbia, his brand-new roommate," said Odd.

That struck Ulrich in the heart as he looked back at Cassidy who gave him a playful wink.

_Incredible_, Ulrich thought, _McGuire knew what she was talking about! Maybe I should apologize after classes._

"What?" he said.

"I'm new to the academy and the principal told me to move in with you!" said Odd.

Ulrich looked like his dinner from last night would make itself known. "Hey," said Odd. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," said Ulrich, "I just feel like my dinner from last night might make itself known!"

"Maybe you should go to the infirmary," said Odd.

"Maybe," he said.

A raven-haired girl with a pink shirt and dark maroon pants on walked up to the two boys. "Hi, there, Ulrich Sweetheart! I've got something very important to tell you!"

"Sissi," Ulrich said. "Could you leave me alone for today, please. I'm not feeling well!"

"Aw…my Ulrich isn't feeling well," said Sissi consolingly. "I guess I could leave you alone for today!" She left to find her seat.

"Ulrich Sweetheart," said Odd teasingly, "who's the good-looking babe?"

"Sissi, she's the principal's daughter," said Ulrich. "Guys flip over her, but she's more flipped over me!"

"That's really cool!" said Odd.

"Cool! She's totally brain-dead and a leech as well," said Ulrich, fist to head.

"In that case, it's pretty linked," said Odd.

**After Class**

"…and the waiter says, 'I don't have frogs' legs! That's just the way I walk!'" said Odd, chortling at his own joke. "Did you get it!"

"No," said Ulrich.

Near the door, someone laughed. It was Cassidy McGuire. As she laughed, she said, "Good one, Odd!"

"Hey, Cassidy," said Ulrich, "I want to apologize for not believing you! Odd has now became a name in my book!"

"Apology accepted, Ulrich," smiled Cassidy.

"You're apologizing to _her_," said Odd. "Why?"

"I told her that Odd was not a name, but since I met you, I owed her an apology."

* * *

Jeremie went back to the factory to the pink-haired girl in the computer. "Artificial Intelligence, can you hear me?" he asked.

"Yes, but do you mind calling me something else please?" said the girl.

Jeremie heard Cassidy's words buzzing in his brain. _If she says that, call him/her/it 'Aelita.'_

"Okay, how do you like the name 'Aelita?'" he asked.

"Aelita? I like that! But what I really like is for you to tell me what I am doing here in this virtual universe!"

"That's not so easy! But I've already got a couple of answers! You're part of a virtual world called Lyoko and you've got to try to get out of there! Look around for a door or something like that!" Jeremie said.

Aelita stood up in Lyoko's forest tower, walked to the entrance to the forest, and felt around for the said "door" as Jeremie called it. It wasn't there.

"Jeremie, I can't find anything. I—" Aelita said, and then saw some ripples in the tower when she touched it. She touched it twice and the same effect happened again. A third time and the tower sucked her out of there.

Instead of Earth and the scanners, she found a luscious green virtual forest. "Jeremie I—this is weird! You have to see this!" she said.

"I'd love to. Do you think you can give me a visual?" he asked.

"I'll try," Aelita said.

As Jeremie waited, he saw the exact same thing that Aelita saw. "Wow," said he. The holomap arrived, causing Jeremie to turn his head. "Aelita, there isn't just a forest out there! There's an entire world. I count four sectors, each one is different!"

As Aelita looked around the forest, she spotted some cockroach-like creatures. "Uh, Jeremie, I'm not all alone out here! There are some animals!"

"That's fantastic," said Jeremie. "This virtual world has an entire ecosystem with virtual-living creatures! Can you get close enough—?"

When Aelita went too close to the cockroaches, they shot lasers, interrupting Jeremie's unfinished question. "Jeremie, they're attacking me!" she yelled while running.

"Run away, Aelita," he commanded. "Get back to the tower!"

Aelita ran as fast as she could, but one blasted her in the back.

On Earth, Jeremie saw that Aelita's life points went down. "Aelita," he yelled as he patted the screen. "Hurry up!"

Aelita ran again, but one of them shot her as she tried to enter the tower. She entered just in time, but unconsciously.

The red that flashed vanished. Jeremie relaxed. "Whew, your-your life points are regenerating!"

* * *

Yumi ordered her drink. Unbeknownst, she really had friends but now she was friendless. She exited the vending machine area.

After she left Odd started a riveting conversation to Ulrich. Fortunately, Cassidy was there. "Hey Ulrich," said she. "Odd is about to do a Sissi converse. Better watch out!"

"You know what I was thinking, you know your girlfriend there, Sissi," said Odd.

Ulrich was stupefied. How did she know all this? Was she like a dog with powerful ears instead of a nose?

"She's not my girlfriend!" Ulrich said, regaining his composure quickly.

Odd crushed the cup that he had in his hands and threw it in the trash. "Cool," said Odd. "That means she's available." Jeremie walked by.

"Jeremie," said Cassidy. "I recommend that you press 7 instead of 6! It's for a good cause, trust me."

"If you say so!" said Jeremie as he did what Cassidy advised him to do.

"I'm telling you, she's lame. And, no offense, but your not her type," said Ulrich.

"Oh, yeah, I get that a lot," said Odd.

Jeremie didn't know that six was possessed, but he pressed seven as Cassidy said.

"Hey, Odd," said Cassidy. "Just to let you know, there are other fish in the Kadic Sea!"

"There are other girls, you mean!" asked Odd, moving toward Cassidy suggestively.

"Uh…yeah, Odd," said Cassidy. She ran up to the same vending machine that Jeremie ordered his drink from and pressed the number six, hoping that the charge would help her. It did. "McGuire," said Ulrich as he went under her arm and scooped her up, Jeremie joined the other side after picking up her far-sighted prescription and putting it on her face. "Hey, McGuire, you okay! We'll take her to the infirmary," said Ulrich to Odd. "Tell a teacher, OK!" Odd nodded and ran over to the closest teacher he could find. The vending machines flashed an eye-symbol. **(A/N: I end up saving lots of people's lives by doing the dangerous stuff, i.e. touching XANAfied door handles.)**

At the infirmary, Yolanda Perraudin took Cassidy's blood pressure and said, "Nothing too serious; just a minor electric shock and some superficial burns!"

"Well, you wanted some way to get out of the nightmare, now you had one!" Ulrich joked.

"Very funny Ulrich," said Cassidy, "But thank you and Jeremie all the same!"

"Don't mention it," Ulrich said. "I'll come by tonight to check up on you after my martial arts class!" And he shut the door.

"Ulrich," said Cassidy.

"Yeah," said Ulrich, reentering the infirmary.

"If you lose to a black-haired girl, it's nothing to be ashamed about," said Cassidy.

**At Ulrich and Yumi's martial arts class**

"How are you all?" Jim Morales said. "I'm so happy to be seeing all of you here tonight. Karate, Judo, Jutsu **(A/N: I don't know how to spell what Jim originally spoke, so I made the two up! End A/N)**; No these aren't the dishes of the golden bag of a Chinese restaurant." He laughed nervously. "No offense, Miss Ishiyama!"

"None taken, sir," Yumi said. "I'm Japanese!"

Jim took a minute to record what she said and then said, "Yeah, well, whatever. These are training techniques that can save your life, as they did for me when I was a forest ranger in Quebec!"

"Really, what happened?" asked Ulrich.

"That night, well, I was quietly enjoying a waffle with maple syrup by my campfire when I was attacked by a vicious beaver! Its razor-sharp teeth were going for my jugular, but I was able to save myself thanks to the perfect mastery of the Raging Hand of Lethal Chime!" Jim said in story.

Ulrich and Yumi laughed. "What? What's so funny about that?" Jim asked.

"Excuse us, sir-r," said Yumi, shaking the _r_ in sir.

"Honestly, I think you'd rather be better off not talking about it," said Ulrich.

"Right," said Jim, "Okay then, enough _laughing_. Let's get into groups of two."

Yumi and Ulrich came into the centre-circle/line and began to fight. Yumi started the first move, which was a high kick. Ulrich dodged. Yumi tried to kick him, but Ulrich tried to side-sweep the black-haired girl. Yumi flipped while Ulrich got back up on his feet. Yumi landed on hers and flipped a bit of hair from her face. Ulrich said, "Pretty good, for a _beginner._"

Yumi jumped up and kicked Ulrich in the face, knocking him down to the floor. Ulrich woke up quickly. Yumi grabbed his shoulders while Ulrich grabbed hers. They growled for a little bit before they realized one thing: They were _on top of each other_. They blushed.

"Not bad," said Jim, "but you could both use a lot more work. That'll do it for today, kids. Bow to each other now and get some beauty sleep."

Yumi bowed to Ulrich. Ulrich remembered what a certain brown-haired girl said to him. _Don't get sore when you lose,_ said she.

Ulrich bowed to Yumi. "Hey," said Ulrich. "That was a great match."

"Thanks," said Yumi. "My name's Yumi Ishiyama. I'm a day student."

"My name's Ulrich Stern," said Ulrich. "I'm a boarder."

"See you tomorrow," said Yumi.

"See you, Yumi," said Ulrich.

Ulrich and Yumi got dressed into their day clothes and went to where they were supposed to be. Ulrich went to the infirmary to check on Cassidy's condition. She was knitting in bed. She looked up and said, "I got bored. I had Yolanda go up and get something for me to do. I can only knit patchwork squares and scarves."

"Good thinking for keeping yourself busy," said Ulrich. "Thanks for the advice earlier!"

"No problem," said Cassidy. "You saved my life, I save yours. Also, a little more on your roommate, he has a pet, but you absolutely keep him secret. Also, on some far off events, you, Jeremie and I will go somewhere tonight after seven!"

"Come on," said Ulrich. "Let's go see Odd's pet!"

"Okay," said Cassidy, "as long as I'm discharged from the infirmary!"

"I see that you're okay," said Yolanda.

"Yep," Cassidy said.

"You can go," said Yolanda to Cassidy. "You are OK!"

"Okay," said Cassidy. "And thank you for picking up my knitting!"

"No problem," Yolanda said.

"Come on," said Ulrich again.

"I'm a-coming," said Cassidy.

"A-coming?" asked Ulrich.

"It's the way I speak sometimes," said Cassidy.

"Okay," said Ulrich uncertainly.

Together they went up to find a dog as Odd's pet. "Where did that mutt come from," asked Ulrich.

"That's Odd's dog, Kiwi," said Cassidy in a light whisper.

"That's Kiwi, my dog," said Odd. "He just had a little fit that's all. You understand. The poor little thing's not used to being cooped up!"

"I mean, look at this mess," said Ulrich.

"What mess, Ulrich?" asked Cassidy innocently.

He looked around the room. It was immaculate, not a CD, book, or paper out of place. "Where did the mess go?" Ulrich said.

"I cleaned it up while you were looking at Odd," said Cassidy split-secondly.

"It's spotless. But look at my bed," Ulrich screeched again.

Cassidy picked up the blanket and squeamishly put it in the school's laundry bin **(A/N: I had to put something).** She then went to a blanket storage room and found a clean one.

"Here you go, Ulrich," said Cassidy; "One fortified clean blanket."

"Thank you, Cassidy," said Ulrich.

A scream jolted the two brown-haired teens. "That sounds like Jeremie," said Cassidy urgently.

They ran into Jeremie's room and found his robots attacking him. "Jeremie," said Cassidy, "I'm coming!" She pulled the robots off, but one of them attacked her leg.

She kicked, hit, and chopped, and as fast as it came, it stopped. The eye-like logo on Jeremie's computer disappeared.

"Your little friends are kind of aggressive. Maybe you should check their settings," said Ulrich.

"I had nothing to do with it. They just attacked me all of a sudden," said Jeremie setting his chair upright while declaring his innocence.

"You've lost us! Do you mind explaining," said Ulrich.

"No! Forget it!" said Jeremie.

"Come on! Tell us," said Ulrich. "Maybe we could be of some help. What if you suddenly get attacked by a hairdryer and we aren't around."

"Ha, very funny," said Jeremie.

"We aren't leaving this room until we know what's up!" said Ulrich sitting on Jeremie's chair. Cassidy, having no chair to sit in, sat on Jeremie's bed. Ulrich spun around on Jeremie's chair, until Jeremie put his hand on it. "OK," said Jeremie, "what do I have to lose? I'm already in over my head, so I might as well tell you two. This is so crazy." Jeremie walked over to the door and closed it. "First, tell me if you two can keep a secret!"

The trio went to the factory when all of a sudden Ulrich had a flashback.

**FLASHBACK #2**

_He was sleeping by a raven-haired girl. He didn't wake until she did! He yawned as he awoke. Another person explained something._

"_If we don't make it by four," said she. The rest was garbled hopelessly._

**END FLASHBACK**

"Where did that flashback come from?" he asked.

"I had a flashback the first time I came here!" said Jeremie. "I was explaining something to Jim!"

"Mine was waking up by a raven-haired girl! Then another person said, 'If we don't make it by four,' and the rest was hopelessly garbled!" said Ulrich.

Jeremie slid down the rope. The two brown-haired teens' hearts jumped into their stomachs. "What's the matter," Jeremie yelled, "scared of heights?"

"Uh…no," said Ulrich as he slid down.

"I am," Cassidy yelled.

"Just hold onto the rope," said Jeremie.

"What? And commit suicide. Good luck trying to get me down there," said Cassidy.

"Just hold on," said Jeremie calmly. "I'll come to get you down!"

Cassidy paced nervously around the entrance, looking down.

"Okay," said Jeremie when he climbed back up. "I'm going to put you in the backpack hold and then I want you to hang on tight when you feel a rush of air. Keep your eyes closed!" **(A/N: This was Edward's way of doing this to Bella, Twilight fans)**

"Okay," said Cassidy.

Jeremie did what he said and Cassidy did as she was told. They were down in a heartbeat. Cassidy had her eyes squeezed shut. "It is okay, Cassidy," said Jeremie, "We're on the ground."

Cassidy looked and said, "Thank you, Jeremie!"

"You're welcome," said Jeremie as he let her off.

"I'm sorry I caused some delay," said Cassidy.

"No problem," said Ulrich as they piled in the elevator. "Hey! Cassidy, I have to ask you something!"

"Yes," said Cassidy.

"You seemed to know who my roommate is, who my roommate's dog is, and when he was going to start a conversation about Sissi! How did you know?" He asked.

"I just do," said she calmly.

"You also knew what number to avoid," said Jeremie. "Remember the vending machine?"

"Yes I do," said Cassidy. "I just know! The information comes to me! I'm thinking I'm part psychic."

"That may be the point," said Ulrich as the elevator opened.

"Here we are," said Jeremie.

"Okay, so that's the mega-computer you started up," said Ulrich.

"Uh-huh," said Jeremie, "It's actually a Supercomputer! It's ultra-powerful! And while I was examining it, I found out that it runs a virtual universe called Lyoko!"

"You know what, Belpois? This morning's Cassidy-induced incident shocked your brain! This thing's just the control center of the factory, that's all!" said Ulrich as Jeremie typed on a program to talk to Aelita.

"Oh, yeah, well what would you call this, huh? A program for spray painting doors?" Jeremie retorted.

"Hello, Jeremie," said Aelita.

"Who's the girl with the pink hair," asked Ulrich.

"That's Aelita! A form of artificial intelligence that lives on Lyoko! I don't know what she's there for, yet!" replied Jeremie.

"Don't mess with us! You're the one who programmed her, right?" Ulrich said.

"No!" said Aelita, "I woke up the moment Jeremie turned on the Supercomputer. I don't know who I am! My memory has been erased!"

"I think Jeremie, Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi's have been erased too, Aelita, but don't tell them yet," whispered Cassidy to Aelita. "And the only crazy thing is that I know everything even after a program called the return to the past. Don't tell them yet."

"Aelita has to hide in some kind of a tower. As soon as she leaves it, she gets attacked by monsters! You've got to believe me, Stern and McGuire! This is an incredible discovery!" said Jeremie.

"Let's say it is," said Ulrich, sitting in the "cushy chair." "What if—What if it's just a giant video game!"

"Then it's a very dangerous game," said Jeremie. "My robots are programmed just to go and fetch a ball, and they just tried to kill me, don't forget. You saw them. Once more, the moment they attacked, a kind of logo appeared on my computer screen. The same one the monsters had on Lyoko!"

Ulrich did a 360 around in the "cushy chair". "Better and better," said Ulrich. "Do you mean then, that that the virtual thing that attacked Aelita also wants to kill you?"

"That's what it looks like!" said Jeremie.

"You know what? If that's true, Belpois, if it's that dangerous, I think you should shut it down and call the police!"

"What," Cassidy yelled. "NO! Ulrich, I know I'm part psychic, but what about those days when you wanted to be a super hero! Think about it! Do you want to save the world?"

Ulrich thought on the subject for a little bit and then said, "OK, but first we have to have something to get into Lyoko! The question this time is: what do we have?"

"I saw something earlier that might help," said Jeremie.

They went down into the scanner room. "What's all this?" asked Ulrich.

"Scanners," said Jeremie simply.

"Let me guess without opening my eyes," said Cassidy excitedly, eyes shut. "They help get you to the virtual world right?"

"That's right!" said Jeremie.

"Jeremie these things don't exist yet," said Ulrich. "There's no way!"

"You still don't want to believe me?" he asked.

"I do," said Cassidy, stung.

"You do," said Ulrich. "But virtualization is straight out of science fiction!"

Jeremie sat in the scanner that he walked into. "Why don't we try it out? That way, you—" he indicated Ulrich—"can see for yourself! We're going to need a guinea pig!"

Just then, Cassidy's eyes lit up. "I have a nominee."

"Who is he/she/it," Jeremie asked.

"I'll bring him in," said Cassidy. "Get to the lab and warn Aelita of his arrival. I'll be right back!"

"But, what am I supposed to do?" asked Ulrich.

Cassidy who was a foot at the elevator. "Just go with Jeremie and wait until I say, 'Okay, shoot the moon,' for the signal. I'll come with your guinea pig, you'll see!"

Cassidy then came out of the elevator and saw a ramp. She ran up the ramp, went into the sewers and back to the school. She ran toward Odd's dorm. "Hey, Odd," said she, panting like she'd ran a mile.

"Hey, what's up!" said Odd.

"I have a surprise for you, but first I have to blindfold you," she said.

"It better be good," said Odd excitedly as he pulled out a purple handkerchief.

"It is," said Cassidy, smiling evilly behind his back as she tied the knot in the blindfold. "Kiwi, you stay here!" she said calmly.

"Tell me what to do and I'll do it!" said Odd.

"First, stand up on the floor," she clarified, going to the door.

"Okay, I'm standing," said Odd.

"Okay, wait until you hear a click then go out…if you can," she said. "Then follow my voice!"

A click rang out and Odd, blindfolded, tried to find the door. He banged the wall with Ulrich's poster on a few times before Cassidy changed his direction. "This way," she said.

* * *

Meanwhile, Ulrich and Jeremie were getting a bit…tedious. "I hope she'll come," said Jeremie.

"I'm sure she will, Jeremie," said Aelita.

* * *

Odd followed Cassidy as if she were his guide dog. "Where are we going?" he asked.

"Oh…just a place," she said.

"You're not part of a gang are you?" he asked suspiciously.

"Nope," said Cassidy walking toward the factory entrance. "Now I'll swing a rope to you, and I want you to grab it!" She reached out, grabbed the rope without falling, and swung it to Odd. He grabbed it and said, "Okay, now what should I do?" he asked.

"Follow my voice, but keep hold of the rope," she said.

Odd followed the instructions.

"Okay go over the edge," said Cassidy. Odd gave her an "are you nuts" look.

"Just trust me," she commanded. "The rope will act as a pole to help you slide down. I'll meet you there." She ran down the ramp she saw earlier. Odd slid down the rope, still blindfolded, and landed with both feet on the ground. They met up with each other and Cassidy said, "Follow me to this boxcar elevator!"

"Are we in a hotel?" said he.

"Not exactly," she said. "Now come on or no surprise!"

"Okay, Ok," he said as he followed her voice to the elevator.

"Stop!" she barked when they came inside.

"Okay, no need to be so barky," said Odd.

She pressed a button, and they went down into the scanners. Odd then had a flashback…

**FLASHBACK #3**

_He was with a lovely girl in an abandoned factory. She did something to make him stop her. She got a little angry, but she stopped what she was doing._

**END FLASHBACK**

"What happened?" he said.

"You must have had a flashback," said Cassidy. "Ulrich and Jeremie had one. I accidently eavesdropped."

"That happens from time to time." Odd put a finger to his face.

"Don't take off that blindfold," she said urgently.

"Okay," Odd said, putting his finger down.

She led Odd quietly into the scanners, and whispered, "Okay, Odd, take off the blindfold."

He did and saw yellow and brown. "Where are we?" he asked.

Cassidy, however, didn't hear it as she said, "Okay, shoot the moon!"

"Okay," said Jeremie's voice.

"Who or what did you pick," shouted Ulrich's voice.

"Someone that is recent!" said Cassidy. "Shoot the moon!"

"Okay, transfer, guinea pig," said Jeremie, "scanner, guinea pig—" The doors to Odd's scanner shut. "—hey, that is one _recent_ person!"

"That's Odd Della Robbia," said Ulrich. "McGuire, you said that this one was recent! I didn't know you were talking about Odd!"

"He was the _un_intentional guinea pig the first time around. You chose Kiwi," said Cassidy, her eyes clouding as if she was seeing something.

"McGuire, what are you talking about," said Ulrich. "I didn't choose _Kiwi_!"

"You did, in a dream of mine," said Cassidy. "Sissi was there, but I saved you from having Sissi coming."

"Cassidy, I'm coming down to check on you," said Ulrich. "Stay there!"

He came down to see that her eyes were white instead of the dark-brown luster he saw. "Jeremie," said Ulrich, "I think Houston better come down here! Something's wrong with Cassidy! Her eyes are white!"

Jeremie came down. "Cassidy," he said, "What are you seeing?"

"I'm seeing Odd having to be a giant purple cat and with great distaste for a little bit, until he accepted it," she said mystically. An earthquake shook the factory.

"Cassidy, snap out of it," said Jeremie, shaking her shoulders, and giving her a backhanded slap on the face.

"What happened," said Cassidy, her brown eyes penetrating the white.

"You had a psychic vision," said Jeremie. "But it showed some disastrous results. An earthquake rocked the factory!"

"I'm sorry," said Cassidy shamefully.

"Make sure that when you have them, you get to a safe location," Ulrich said.

"Apology accepted, by the way," Jeremie said.

"What about Odd?" Cassidy asked.

"He's safe on Lyoko," said Jeremie.

"He's with cockroach-like monsters called Kankrelats isn't he?" said Cassidy.

"Why do you say that?" said Jeremie.

"Scan me to Lyoko, now!" Cassidy commanded, jumping into a scanner. "Ulrich, your form awaits you!"

"What?" Ulrich asked.

"Come on," said Cassidy.

"Okay, I'm coming," said Ulrich, going into another.

"Transfer: Cassidy," said Jeremie, "transfer: Ulrich, scanner: Cassidy, scanner: Ulrich, virtualization."

Ulrich and Cassidy entered Lyoko. "Hey, Odd, are you there," said Cassidy.

Ulrich started laughing. "What?" Cassidy asked.

"Look!"

Cassidy did. _She_ was the giant purple cat. "Ulrich, you—" she snickered—"you—" she couldn't help it. She laughed, too.

Her hair was the same on earth. "I wonder what Odd received," she said after recovery!

Ulrich, the samurai, shrugged.

"Hey, guys," said Odd. He looked like a ninja with spiked-up hair. "I have laser arrows!"

"I know," said Cassidy, trying to keep her eyes from whitening. "That's your own weapon! I wonder what I have!"

"Hey," said Odd, "What are you doing? You look like your eyes are going to pop out of their sockets!"

"She had a psychic vision that proved deadly in the factory," said Ulrich, "at the time of your transfer."

Cassidy found that her tail was holding something. It was a clear cylindrical tube. She grabbed it from her tail. "A tube, that's it," she asked. _I might as well ask for a gun, _she thought. Like magic, the tube turned into an ultra-powerful .22 caliber.

"Hey, guys, I have a tube that turns into a weapon when I think about it!" said Cassidy.

They looked. She held the gun at them. It turned into a tube. _Turn into a gun_, she thought. It turned into the .22.

"Wow," said the two.

_Turn into the tube,_ she thought. It turned back into the tube. _Turn into a bow/arrow combination,_ she ordered the tube. It turned into a perfect replica of Queen Susan's bow and arrow.

"Oh, my," said Odd.

"That's cool," said Ulrich.

"Let's go find Aelita," said Cassidy. "She's that way." She pointed behind the boys. "You took out the Kankrelats, right, Odd?" she asked.

"I ran away from them!" admitted Odd sheepishly.

The purple feline female groaned. "Next time," said Cassidy, "use bravery instead of cowardice!"

"Okay," said Odd.

"Let's go," said Cassidy.

They ran until they met the Kankrelats. Cassidy used the same arrow to get rid of the two. "Hey," said Cassidy to the tower, "Aelita, are you in there?"

Aelita, the pink-haired elf came out. "I'm here, Cassidy. Are the monsters gone?"

"'Got rid of them," said Cassidy. "There's an activated tower in the Ice Sector! I can sense it!"

"How do we deactivate it," asked Ulrich.

"Aelita has something inside that helps her deactivate towers," said Cassidy accurately.

"Inside?" Ulrich panicked. "Like a stone or something?"

"No, listen!" she said, practically annoyed, "It's nothing as serious as that! She has a power implanted in her that helps her deactivate towers!" She sighed in annoyance.

"Oh," said Ulrich, relaxing.

"We'll have some problems, obstacles, along the way though," Cassidy said.

"Like what," said Odd.

"Block-like creatures called Bloks," said Cassidy, "and tall creatures called Krabes!"

"Wow," said Ulrich.

"I can't wait to use my powers against them!" said Odd excitedly.

"Let's not get too ahead of ourselves," said Aelita suddenly.

"Aelita's right," said Cassidy.

"I'm bushed," said Ulrich.

"Okay," said Cassidy. "Odd and Ulrich, stand in a tight, but not-to-tight, triangle with me."

"What about me?" Aelita asked.

"You can't devirtualize normally like we can yet, but Jeremie will look for a solution!" said Cassidy simply.

"Oh," said Aelita.

"Odd, shoot me, but not yet," said Cassidy. _Turn into a sword,_ she thought. The bow/arrow combo turned into a sword. "Ulrich, you get Odd, I'll get you," said Cassidy. "Ready? On the count of three! One…two…three," said she.

They devirtualized out of Lyoko and into the scanner. Cassidy, being strong, stood up. They went up into the supercomputer room. Jeremie was being attacked by some vicious cords. Ulrich picked up a piece of metal and cut the cords. The attack stopped. Jeremie brought up Aelita. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Well, we're a little shaken up, but it could've been worse," said Jeremie.

**A/N: Flashback credits:**

**#1: Code: Earth  
#2: Skidbladnir  
#3: Kadic Bombshell**


	3. The Next Day

**Disclaimer: No ownership of Code Lyoko, Maximum Ride**

**Claimer: William, before the return trip, activated the return with the help of our favorite comp virus. He deactivated the scanners, explaining the fact that no one has any memory of the return trip. Not even William himself has any memory of it. Cassidy is owned. She is one who remembers a lot of their history.**

The Next Day

Ulrich and Cassidy were in the cafeteria eating breakfast when Odd walked in. He was different. "Hey, Lovebirds! 'Sleep well?"

Cassidy, looking up from her croissant, saw the change. Odd's hair, which was down the night before, was up and spiked.

"Cool 'do, Odd," she said.

"Thanks," said Odd cheerily.

"What's with the hairdo?" Ulrich wondered.

"Lyoko style! It's pretty trendy, huh? Meow," said Odd with a smile as he sat down at the table.

All of a sudden, the purple ninja dived into his food. "Do you always eat that much?" asked Ulrich, half-concerned.

"No, I'm not that hungry, today, in fact! Has anyone seen Jeremie?" Odd asked with his mouth full.

"He spent all night in his room working on Lyoko after putting the computer back together!" said Ulrich.

"Man, that guy's a real Einstein!" said Odd.

"He is," said Cassidy in agreement, "I agree!"

* * *

"Unfortunately, Cassidy's right, Aelita," said Jeremie in his room. "You're not like the three. You can't be devirtualized when you lose all of your life points!"

"Too bad," said Aelita. "Well, at least I know my power!"

"Yes. Cassidy seems to know all about you!"

"She told off the monsters really well! She seems strong!" said she.

"I agree," said Jeremie. "And she knew the location of the tower you were in before I had a chance to relay the information to them!"

"She's really bright, like you," said Aelita.

"I wouldn't go that far," said Jeremie. "She might have just known."

**Meanwhile on Lyoko's Ice Sector…**

The tower Cassidy indicated last chapter pulsated into a dark-but-not-too-dark red.

**Outside Lyoko…**

"So," said Cassidy, sitting on the bench, "You want us to go into Lyoko to materialize Aelita!"

"Hey," said Jeremie, "how did you guess!"

"I read your eyes **(A/N: Don't get any ideas! JxA forever! That came off an episode of CSI NY! End A/N)**," said Cassidy.

"Oh," said Jeremie.

"It's really dangerous," said Odd.

"Odd's right," said Ulrich. "We're better off shutting down the Supercomputer! Too bad for Aelita, but is still isn't like she's human!"

"You're mad, Ulrich," said Cassidy, pulling on her fake British accent and acting as if he sucker-punched her in the stomach.

"But she's still a sort of intelligent being. She's got e-emotions like we do," said Jeremie.

"Jeremie's right," said Cassidy saluting as if he were her captain. "I am happy to help, Jeremie."

"Thank you, Cassidy," said Jeremie, smiling.

"We can't even make it past the monsters!" said Odd. "We'll probably get ourselves blown away in a heartbeat!"

"If only there were five of us, but I don't know who would like to go," said Ulrich.

"If you had your partner in martial arts class help, that may help," said Cassidy.

"Hey, nice idea," said Ulrich, running to the gymnasium. "Thanks!"

"No problem," said Cassidy. "Now, go do a lovely rematch with him/her!"

"Bye!" said Ulrich.

"See you Ulrich, good luck," Cassidy said cheerily.

"Okay," said Ulrich.

"He'll come with our fifth member!" Cassidy murmured, eyes turning white again. "I know he will!"

"Odd, we had better get Cassidy to a safe spot; this is too public!" said Jeremie, scooping her by the arms.

Odd scooped her by the legs and, with Jeremie, took her to the forest.

Jeremie tried shaking her, but her eyes were as white as snow. "Cassidy, snap out of it," shouted Odd, snapping his fingers. An earthquake shook the park. Jeremie then slapped her backhandedly. She blinked and her eyes were dark brown again.

"What happened," Cassidy said groggily.

"You had another vision," said Odd quickly without thinking.

It was Odd's turn to be slapped this time. "OW!" said he.

"That's for speaking tactlessly," said Jeremie angrily.

**In the gymnasium…**

Ulrich walked in. "Back for another thrashing?" said Yumi.

"I don't like ending on a bad note," said Ulrich.

"That's good! I like a good challenge!"

"You're going to get one!"

The two went near one of the free-throw lines and bowed to each other. Another non-verbal fight commenced. They circled a bit before Ulrich initiated the first move. Yumi backed up a bit then Ulrich tried again. Both seem to be evenly matched.

**Lyoko…**

The tower glowed red, and pulsations erupted from the ground to the Forest Sector where Aelita felt them as she meditated in her tower. She opened her eyes.

**Earth, with Sissi…**

"1, 2, 3, 4," Sissi repeated as she marched around in her cheerleading uniform.

**Meanwhile…**

A blue ball of electric energy came out of the electric socket, determined to kill.

**Lyoko…**

"Jeremie? Jeremie, can you hear me? Jeremie!" said Aelita, looking around for him…kind of.

**Odd, Cassidy, and Jeremie…**

"It's true that…"

"You found Sissi attractive, but she's a squirrel **(A/N: Thank the animated film **_**Madagascar**_**! End A/N)**?" said Cassidy inquisitively.

"Nice work," said Odd as the three went to the library.

**Lyoko…**

Aelita went over to the entrance of the tower, and facing her fears, exited from the tower and into the Forest Sector. She heard pulsations in her ears and throughout her body and she ran through the forest.

**With Ulrich and Yumi…**

Ulrich and Yumi were panting hard as Ulrich asked, "Have you been training for long?"

"Yeah, my parents think it is weird," said Yumi.

"Not me," said Ulrich.

**Lyoko…**

In the Mountain sector, Aelita exited from the tower that she changed sectors in. Then she saw a cockroach-like creature. _That must be a Kankrelat. Cassidy knows Lyoko well, _she thought while hiding behind a rock.

**Sissi…**

"A baboon, huh, why not a red-tailed macaque while he's at it," said Sissi in anger. She had just been disqualified from the baton squad for throwing a baton to Jim's head. Herve and Nicholas followed behind. Sissi noticed them as they approached and she unlocked her door. "Hey, you two dumb dorks," she said, "Are you planning on following me around all day!"

"Eh, yeah," said Nicholas.

"We're your biggest admirers in the whole school," said Herve. "We've even started a fan club called 'Friends of Sissi.'"

"Oh! About how many of you are in the club?" asked Sissi.

"Well, two of us," said Herve, putting his index fingers together.

"Right, then come talk to me when there are at least _50_ of you. Meanwhile, if you don't stay away from me, my father's going to find out that you two clowns tried to break into my room!" said Sissi, slamming the door shut.

"She's even _more_ beautiful when she's angry, isn't she?" asked Herve. Nicholas nodded.

Sissi was deciding to change out of her cheerleading outfit and into some comfort clothes when all of a sudden, her closet railing started to spark. "Huh," she asked as the spark didn't stop.

The ball from before electrocuted her. And she went unconscious. Herve and Nicholas burst in from the door and found her.

**At the Library…**

Cassidy read a Maximum Ride book, Odd worked on his electrochemistry report, and Jeremie was typing on his laptop. "Aha, bingo," said Jeremie excitedly but quietly. "A couple of days ago, I dug up…"

"Return to the Past program," said Cassidy in a guess. She was ingesting her book's info.

"Hitting the nail over the head," said Jeremie.

"That's great, Einstein, but could you give me a hand with my electrochemistry report?" asked Odd.

"Hey, Odd, are you planning on calling me Einstein forever," asked Jeremie.

"Uh, why not? So, what about my report?" Odd asked. Cassidy rolled her eyes. The American tiger-stripe-dressed girl **(A/N: Cloth-not-fur-not-even-fake-fur though! End A/N)** went back to her book.

"Well, why don't you say that electrochemistry is a science that deals with the relationship between electricity and chemistry? Then, you said that electrochemistry involves opposing polar systems composed, at its two extremes, of electrically conducted material!" said Jeremie.

"What? You mean all I have to do is say that?" asked Odd.

"No, of course not, you have to give examples," said Jeremie.

"Don't look now," Cassidy said, "but Mathias is going to say something about Sissi."

"Sissi was taken to the infirmary," said Mathias walking with Christophe M'Balla.

"What she do? 'She pull a muscle on her brain trying to add two plus two," said Christophe.

"No man, she got electrocuted," said Mathias.

Both Odd and Cassidy looked to their pal, Jeremie, while he looked at both of them.

**Lyoko…**

"Jeremie," said Aelita, "are you there? Answer me!" She looked around and saw another path. She ran off and jumped onto the path she saw. Unfortunately, the Kankrelat followed too. She ran until another Kankrelat blocked her path. She ran to the edge of the path and jumped off, hoping to land on a path. And the Kankrelats followed with **(A/N: Typical Kankrelats! End A/N). **

She landed on, as she hoped, a path. The monsters landed out of her way. Then some bee-like monsters came into view.

**Ulrich and Yumi…**

The two fought like heck. Just then, the switch crackled with electricity causing the light above the door to flash green. Ulrich tried to roundhouse, but Yumi caught his foot and he hopped backward until he grabbed her by the shoulders and the two tumbled until they were on top of each other again. This time Yumi was on the ground. Ulrich and Yumi blushed simultaneously then Ulrich climbed off her and lay down next to her. "Call it a tie," said Yumi, getting up.

Ulrich, getting up next to her, said, "Okay. Anyway, I gotta go! My friends are going to start wondering where I am; same for you!"

"I don't have any friends. Not that I remember," said Yumi.

Just then, the Ball of Lightning came after them. "Whoa, what is that thing," said Yumi.

"No time to explain, come on, we have to get out of here! Quick!" said Ulrich quickly and urgently, grabbing Yumi by the hand and Running to the boiler room.

**Sissi**

Principal Delmas came into the infirmary wing. He said, "You're the one who brought Elisabeth here! What happened?"

"She was in her room and she was attacked by this electricity monster that jumped from a coat hanger," said Nicholas.

"Would you try to be serious, Poliakoff?" said Delmas. "You're the one who's going to receive a shock in a moment!"

Jeremie, Cassidy, and Odd looked from the doorway.

**Ulrich and Yumi**

They ran into the boiler room. Ulrich shut the door. Panting, Yumi said, "It was as if that electrical thing was alive! What is going on?" Yumi asked.

Ulrich called Jeremie on his cell. "Yeah, Jeremie."

"Ulrich, great, I really need you! Sissi got electrocuted by some kind of giant…" said Jeremie.

"Electric thing?" asked Ulrich.

"Huh," asked Jeremie, "yeah, how did you know?"

"That same electric thing attacked me in the gymnasium. This is getting more and more dangerous—you and your Supercomputer," said Ulrich.

"All the more reason to materialize Aelita A-S-A-P!" said Jeremie. "We have to get to Lyoko and bring her to the red tower! If it works, we can shut the computer down tonight. We'll meet you in the sewer."

Ulrich and Jeremie hung up. "Sorry, Yumi, but I gotta go!" said Ulrich, walking into the pathway into the sewers.

"Hang on!" said Yumi. "You seem to know what's going on here. What was this electrical thing that attacked us and what is this Supercomputer you're talking about?"

"Look, I don't have any time to explain," said Ulrich.

"Okay," said Yumi, walking toward him and grabbing him by the shoulder. "You have time for a third round then?"

"You're as stubborn as a mule aren't you?" asked the German-_named_ boy.

"That's right," Yumi asked. "And since I have no friends, I have lots of time!"

Ulrich let out a sigh. "Oh, come on, I'll explain on the way!"

* * *

Ulrich and Yumi jumped over the piping when they met up with Odd, Cassidy, and Jeremie. "Hey, who's that girl?" asked Jeremie.

"That's Ulrich's martial arts partner, apparently," said Cassidy.

"This is Yumi! She was there when I attacked and she knows how to fight, so I thought…" Ulrich said.

"Okay, okay," said Jeremie. "Later! Right now, we have to get to the factory! Let's go!"

Yumi didn't know what Jeremie was talking about but she followed after the four teens ran.

**Lyoko…**

Aelita exited from a cave that she hid in and found that the bee-like monsters were still chasing her. She ran to the way tower, only to be shot in the arm by the bee-like monsters. She made it inside and switched sectors to the Ice sector. There, some block-like creatures named Bloks. She ran. They tried to shoot.

**Factory…**

Jeremie, Odd, Ulrich, Cassidy, and Yumi ran to the factory. When she got to the entrance, Yumi had a flashback.

**FLASHBACK #4**

"_Yumi," said Ulrich. "Come here. I have something I need to tell you!"_

"_I do to," said Yumi. "Emily's in love with Jim!"_

"_What?" Ulrich asked._

"_Odd told me all _about_ it! Pretty crazy, huh," she said._

**END FLASHBACK**

"Don't tell me you're scared!" she taunted Ulrich as she slid down on the rope.

Ulrich slid down behind her.

Meanwhile the blue ball of electricity was on their trail _in the sewers_.

The elevator opened up to show the five teens. "So who's this Aelita?" asked Yumi raising an eyebrow.

Jeremie smiled as he said, "You're going to be meeting her in just a minute! Get straight to the scanner room and get ready for the big plunge!"

"Big plunge? But I don't have a bathing suit!" said Yumi nervously.

"Relax, you won't be needing one," said Odd optimistically.

Jeremie typed like a maniac on the keyboard and contacted Aelita. "Aelita, can you hear me? Aelita?"

"Jeremie, I-I'm being chased by monsters," said Aelita, running from the Bloks.

"Why did you leave the tower before we got there? Are you crazy?" asked Jeremie worriedly.

"Jeremie, I heard some strange pulsations. I wanted to see what they were," said Aelita.

"Okay, I'm sending you back-up! For now, just try and hide somewhere!" said Jeremie.

Aelita ran to find a hiding spot and ran inside a waterfall. She jumped on the stepping-stones laid out for her and went to the other side.

Yumi looked at the scanners. "This story of yours is pure science fiction!" said she.

"It's real, Yumi," said Cassidy.

"You guys ready," said Jeremie. "I'm starting up the procedure."

"I'll go last," said Cassidy.

"Transfer: Odd, Transfer: Ulrich!"

"Don't tell me you're scared," said Ulrich to Yumi with a taunting smiling on his face.

"Wait!" said Yumi. "I'm coming too!"

"Okay, Transfer: Yumi! Scanner: Yumi, Scanner: Odd, Scanner: Ulrich, virtualization," said Jeremie.

After all the scanners cleared, it was Cassidy's turn to be virtualized. "Transfer: Cassidy, Scanner: Cassidy, virtualization."

Cassidy landed on the ground a purple cat. "At least I have my weapon!" said Cassidy, brave. She pulled out her tube. _Turn into a gun,_ said Cassidy to the tube. It turned into a .22 caliber gun.

"That's cool, Cassidy," said Yumi, the geisha.

"Thanks," said Cassidy. "On Earth and Lyoko, I possess some kind of vision thing. As a downside, it causes danger to me and my teammates."

"That must be hard," said Yumi.

"I'm so glad I'm a ninja," said Odd.

"For reasons unknown, Odd's cat costume switched with my card. Now he's a ninja and I'm a cat!" said Cassidy. "We have to find Aelita. Come on!"

Cassidy ran to find a waterfall and ran inside. She shot the gun at the Bloks, and then went over to Aelita and said, "They're gone!"

"Thank goodness," said Aelita.

The both jumped out of the waterfall. They all make it to the tower but then some tall creatures come in.

"Krabes, right?" Ulrich asked Cassidy. Cassidy nodded a "yes".

"Um, excuse me but I don't have a weapon," said Yumi.

Cassidy smiled. "What is that between the back and bow?" she asked in the "What's that behind your ear" voice we know so well.

She reached in between the bow and Yumi's back and found a tessen fan. "It is one fortified weapon of choice!" said Cassidy.

"But what should I do with that weapon?" asked Yumi.

Cassidy gave a forceful flick of her wrist and Yumi's fan went whizzing through Lyoko's air, on a Krabe, and back to her.

"Oh, my, gosh," said Yumi, awed. "That was so neat."

"It's a keeper?" asked Cassidy eagerly, giving the fan back to Yumi.

"I think I'll keep it!" said Yumi with an energetic spark in her eye.

_Turn into a homing gun, but stay in the .22 range,_ said Cassidy to the .22 gun before her.

It did. "Those two Krabes are going _down_!" said Cassidy courageously, the word "down" sounding like a growly battle cry.

"Let's fight," said Odd.

They fought until the Krabes disappeared. Aelita then went into the tower. She rose onto another platform. An interface popped up, making her jump. She then walked tentatively to the interface and put her hand on it. It showed her name. "'Aelita,'" she said. "Jeremie, your name you gave me is permanent."

Then CODE came up.

She typed in the code.

Outside the tower, Cassidy turned to Odd. "Odd, shoot me," said Cassidy.

"Why?" Odd asked.

"Just do it," said Cassidy.

He did and Cassidy devirtualized. She came to Jeremie, who was fighting against the blue sphere the whole time, and carried him to the scanners. She placed him in, and scanned him. "There," said Cassidy. She pressed the keys and said, for the first time in ten years, "Return to the Past, Now!"

A white bubble covered all of Earth and went back to the vending machine.

"What happened anyway? What are we doing here?" said Ulrich.

"But we were doing this yesterday," said Yumi, now having friends.

"I can answer that," said Cassidy. "I did a return to cover up the Sissi-being-electrified attack."

"It worked," said Jeremie. "I remember too. Who scanned me?"

"I did," said Cassidy. "So now, you are immune to the returns to the past like we are!"

"That's great!" said Jeremie.

Odd said, "I have to go to the bathroom. I don't like my hair."

"You're excused, Odd," said Cassidy.

Odd nodded his thanks and ran off.

"Also, 'Aelita' is permanent," said Cassidy to Jeremie. "You caught horse with one rope on that guess!"

"How did you know what name to call her?" asked Jeremie.

"I just knew," said Cassidy. "Are we a team?"

"Yep," said Ulrich. "And we'll save the world and protect Aelita at every corner!"

"Great!" said Cassidy.

**Later Oct. 10**

"Hi," said Yumi, "did you find anything."

"Yes, XANA," said Jeremie.

"XANA, what's that?" Odd asked.

"A super dangerous program. Like a virus that can control electricity, and can activate towers to gain access to your world," said Aelita.

"So the red tower, the electricity monster, the weird symbol, and the monsters on Lyoko, all of that was XANA!" asked Yumi.

"Yes. Only Aelita can counter it by deactivating the tower that it—"

"_He_," said Cassidy.

—"he uses for attacks in the real world."

"That's great," said Ulrich. "But what about materializing Aelita?"

"Jeremie will find a solution soon," said Cassidy, smiling.

"It could get very dangerous you know. XANA could attack at any moment," said Jeremie.

"Be reasonable, Jeremie," said Aelita, feeling a bit defiant. "We'd better just shut this thing down!"

"No, Aelita," said Cassidy. "It's _our_ job to help you counter XANA's attacks."

"Look, now that we know how to neutralize XANA, we just have to get Aelita to the activated the tower," said Ulrich.

"We can find a way to counter the attacks, while Einstein figures out how to bring Aelita back to Earth, right?" said Odd. The two teen boys standing up looked to Yumi. Cassidy pulled on _Maximum Ride's _Angel's Bambi Eyes.

"It's risky, but I think we should," said Yumi. "I mean we are Lyoko warriors, aren't we!" Ulrich and Odd hit each other's fists, saying, "YEAH!"

"You really think you can do it?" asked Aelita.

"They don't call me 'Einstein' for nothing. In a few weeks, I'll have this figured out," said Jeremie. "Meanwhile, let's keep this a secret."

"Don't worry, Einstein, I can be trusted," said Cassidy.

"Hey, relax, we know how to keep a secret!" said Yumi.

**Flashback credit:**

**#4: Swarming Attack**


	4. The Routine's about to Change

**Disclaimer: Don't own Code Lyoko.**

**Claimer: do own Cassidy and this plot.**

**I am SO sorry for not updating this sooner, but I was in a HUGE block. Code Lyoko's first season is really a tangle, and it took me until I got a headache. So here, we are ROUTINE baby.**

"It's now or never!" said Jeremie Belpois, operating the super computer.

"Thanks for the tip Jeremie!" Cassidy called. She got her tube ready.

Ulrich started the signing. Cassidy's signal: Take out two Bloks and run back.

Cassidy nodded. She understood, being a little bit of a dangerous psychic.

Odd and Yumi's signal: follow each other, hide, and then take out the Megatanks by force.

Odd and Yumi hid behind the trees. Aelita's signal was next: after the path was clear, go to the tower and deactivate it.

Ulrich also signed the order: Cassidy was to go last, since she might get a vision before her time. Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi would go respectively, third, second and first. Aelita would go after Cassidy and soon, the "You-who it's us" time would call it quits.

Yumi took out the first Megatank, Odd, the second, and, Ulrich, one of the Bloks. Cassidy, now determined, ran over and used her weapon to snipe the last Blok. "Aelita, it's your turn now!" Cassidy found her virtual vocal cords.

Aelita went into the tower as Jeremie complimented, "As usual guys, great job!"

"That's right, another XANA attack chopped up; another tower gone!" Cassidy smiled while Odd did a list of positive stuff.

"Hey Odd, you know that we are going to go back in time again." Cassidy patted the ninja on his back.

Odd pulled a coy "really, you sure" face. "You said it Cat-Girl!" Cassidy giggled.

"Return to the Past—" ("See you soon, Aelita," Cassidy said)—"Now!"

The white bubble went over earth.

Science class went by in a blur to Cassidy. "R-R-R-I-I-I-N-G," sang the bell.

"Class dismissed," Mrs. Hertz said. "And don't forget your chemistry exercise for tomorrow!"

Cassidy, Ulrich, Odd, and Jeremie went outside and over to the benches. Odd took the top of the bench; Cassidy took the seat; Ulrich sat in the opposite bench; and Jeremie still stood—Yumi waiting for all of them.

"Hey guys, so how was Science class with Mrs. Hertz today? Was it fun?"

"Same old, we had the same classes twice, and I found it cool!" Cassidy gave her report.

"Once, twice," Jeremie smiled as he sat beside Cassidy **(A/N: No JxOC Pairing here! End A/N). **"And you never find it boring?"

"Never, unlike someone I know!" Ulrich flinched as Cassidy's eyes bored into his.

But Cassidy smiled. "Sissi is coming!" she said, eyes a now pale brown.

"'Hello, Ulrich Dear, can we talk for a minute?'" Odd imitated.

"You know that Ulrich may say no!" Cassidy's eyes were now a paler brown. But now, Cassidy was watching Odd.

"Hello, Ulrich Dear, can we talk for a minute?" Sissi came over, giving Odd a dirty look. The purple-clad boy giggled and smiled.

"First of All, I'm not your 'Ulrich Dear'! Second of all, I will not go to your room to explain Exercise B, page 52." Ulrich was tired of Sissi coming over and doing…God-knows-what to him. The gang was too. It got annoying after Sissi tried to blackmail him (thank God for Cassidy, who had told Yumi to get to the girls' bathroom and it was on top of the third stall's water tank). Even when she started bugging Jeremie about Lyoko, (Cassidy decided to help, by giving her prompts to do her homework), it added to the pile.

Sissi was flabbergasted. She raised an eyebrow. "But... how did you know that I...?"

Cassidy and Co. smiled like, you knew that this was coming.

She walked off angered and embarrassed. "A Sissi attack is almost as bad as a XANA attack, and ten times more boring." Yumi laid her hands in the back of her head.

"You bet," Cassidy's eyes came back to dark brown.

Later, the gang was walking to the gate. Ulrich was feeling a little…antsy. "So, anyone feel like sneaking out on the town for a while?"

"Count me out; I have a heavy date with my pillow!" Odd put his hands to his head as if imitating sleeping.

"And I have to work my program for materializing Aelita. One of these days, I'm going to do it." Jeremie smiled excitedly.

"Cassidy? Yumi?" Ulrich asked. "You two want to go out and get an ice cream?"

"No, but thanks Ulrich!" said Yumi. "I got to get caught up with my homework. I'm _way_ behind due to all the XANA attacks, ciao!"

"See you later, Yumi!" Odd and Jeremie walked away.

"I feel a need to get out! Being in school is cool and all, but I need _some_ fresh ciudad air!" Cassidy smiled.

"Ciudad air?" asked Ulrich.

"City air, Ulrich. I'm sorry about my Spanish speaking skills!" Cassidy blushed.

"Well, let's go then," Ulrich was happy that he had someone to go with.

Cassidy's eyes got a little light. "Hey, without someone with free time, you would have been super-sad in no time flat!"

"Really?" Ulrich asked.

"Do children ask where babies come from?" Cassidy teased.

"Yes," Ulrich said a tad awkward.

"Then yes."

Later, Ulrich was mulling things around while petting Kiwi. After awhile, he and Kiwi were the best of friends with Odd, Cassidy, Aelita, Jeremie, and Yumi.

_Yumi,_ he sighed in his mind. _It was months ago when we met, and yet I can't figure out my feelings for her. Does she want me as a friend, or as a boyfriend?_

"Ring," his phone sang.

_It must be Cassidy, Jeremie, or Yumi. Odd's still in the shower._

He answered it. "Hello!" He sighed.

"GOD!" Cassidy's voice screamed, distressed. "I'm THE WORLD'S Peeping Tina! I heard your thoughts from MY room!"

"W-what?" Ulrich's words were strangled.

"Come to my room! Bring Odd and Kiwi, and Jeremie. I called Yumi."

Ulrich, Odd, Kiwi, Jeremie (with his laptop), and Yumi came up to see Cassidy sweating and pacing around her room. Her fists were clenching so hard that her fingernails would pierce skin and cause her palms to bleed.

Cassidy started to tear up, panting as if reading minds was the end of the world.

"Cassidy, first of all, sit down." Jeremie took charge immediately.

She did. "Second of all, what did you read?"

"Well you were thinking of algorithms, codes, and Aelita. To tell you the truth, you are so in love—" Jeremie blushed. "Odd was thinking of sleeping—" Odd was swaying even his odd-balled hair did the same. "I couldn't hear Yumi's thoughts, because she's so far away! But Ulrich was thinking of—I'd rather not say it!" Cassidy tried to stand, but Yumi, who had come up behind her, held her down.

Jeremie invited Aelita in. "Hi, Jeremie, what's going on?" Aelita raised a virtual brow. **(A/N: I don't feel comfortable with Aelita stuck on Lyoko in mostly the first season, but I have to work with it. Pobre me! End A/N) **

"Cassidy can read minds, and she's…panicking!" Jeremie said.

"Panicking?"

"Being in fear; no bravery; terror; foreboding!" Odd fell to the ground in his purple towel as Jeremie explained.

Yumi almost looked down and groaned in anger. "Odd if you don't get your clothes on right now, I will personally kick your butt all over school and over Lyoko tomorrow."

"They're in the boys' bathroom. But I'll get them." Odd grudgingly picked himself up, and left the room.

Later, when Cassidy was calmed down, Ulrich was back to petting Kiwi again. Odd opened the door and said, "Ah…Ulrich, you oughtta take a shower; it really relaxes you!" He lay down on his bed, totally relaxed.

"Tell me what your day was like!" Ulrich said.

Odd sat up on his bed. "Oh, nothing special, let's see, now: I had the embarrassment of my life today in gym class. My shorts tore, you can guess where. I had a Spanish lesson with Cassidy—she's fluent, but she comes from America. I lost my pencil case in the library, and, to finish the day, I got into a fight with Marcie. Then tonight's Cassidy-related incident happened!" Odd listed. "And that's what my day was like!" He lay down on his bed again.

"No, what I mean, Odd, is, don't you feel like you've had the exact kind of day?" Ulrich asked, continuing to pet Kiwi.

"Well yeah, but that's normal!" Odd yawned, sitting up. He was getting tired. "Don't forget we had the same French, English, and Physics class twice, we get a Spanish lesson every day, and on Lyoko, it was 'you-who it's us' for the seventh time." Odd put his hands between his legs.

"'You-who it's us?'"

"That's what I call our game plan; you know the one we use to help Aelita get to the tower safe and sound! Why all these questions, hmm?" Odd folded his arms against his chest loosely.

"No reason I—I'm fed up with all this: School, Spanish lessons with Cassidy, Lyoko, back to School, new Spanish lessons with Cassidy, back to Lyoko, and, this is XANA's fifth attack in a week." Kiwi licked Ulrich's cheek. "And I'm also fed up with what's happening between Yumi and me! Once in a while, I get the feeling that—" Ulrich sighed—"that she doesn't really like me. That she doesn't have any feelings for me." He sighed again, almost as if lonesome.

Odd meanwhile, fell asleep in Ulrich's speech. Poor Odd didn't hear the ends of the sentences. He just lay there, snoring with his white towel **(A/N: Odd switched towels. Ulrich interrupted Odd in the middle of his shower.)**

Ulrich put Kiwi off his lap, looking forlorn. All the talk about Yumi made his heart, note: not rise with joy, but slip into what seemed like an eternity of melancholy. He decided to go and take a shower, so he gathered up the essentials to a nice shower and went into the showers.

The warm water calmed him…

**-A few moments later-**

A pair of blue slippers walked down to the right of the hall…

A pair of green slippers walked down to the left of the hall…

The blue slippers belonged to Emily Le Duc, a student and boarder at Kadic.

The green slippers belonged to Ulrich.

And they both walked past each other, Ulrich saying a nice "hi" to Emily.

"Hello, Ulrich, I'm looking for Jim. Have you seen him?" Emily asked, stopping Ulrich.

"No, I'm sorry," said Ulrich, making Emily frown a little, then give a little smile.

"It is okay; good night!" She walked past Ulrich as he turned around.

Ulrich walked three steps, then stopped, turning around to see her a little bit farther than he was.

He sighed a little, then turned back around, blushing. Emily gave Ulrich a sort of look.

"I don't believe it! Does she have a thing for me, huh?" Ulrich looked around again as a sound snapped to his attention.

The double-doors were getting back to normal.

Ulrich shrugged. Probably nothing unusual, he guessed, then turned around to walk to his dorm when he bumped into Jim.

"Ulrich, if you're going to sleepwalk, do it in your room," Jim commanded.

"Oh, hi, Jim, by the way, Emily's looking for you." Ulrich walked around Jim.

Jim was confused.

**-Supercomputer and super-calculator room-**

**The super-calculator got infected.**

**-The next Morning-**

It was a great morning as Yumi walked down the schoolyard. The weather was lukewarm—not too cold, not too hot.

She saw Ulrich with Emily. _Ulrich_? She held onto the straps of her bag. _What's he doing with Emily?_

Ulrich and Emily laughed, incognizant of the faraway glance of Yumi. _They sure don't look bored._

She shrugged and moved to the trio sitting on the bench. "Hello," she said pleasantly…

"Ulrich was having some down time, emphasis on the word down," Cassidy said, her brown hair almost getting in the way. "Just think of Emily as a break from you. And we all know that she's a year older than him and that you are too."

Yumi was dazed from the dangerous psychic's accuracy. Odd and Jeremie were too. "But how come Ulrich was so sad? Tell me that, Cassidy."

"He was thinking of you…a _lot_ last night after you left my dorm," Cassidy sighed after she said that.

"About what?" Yumi raised both eyebrows.

"He seems to care for you; his feelings for you…are…"

"I get the picture, but what was he thinking about me?"

"He was wondering if you like him, and if you have—or had—any feelings for him." Cassidy was starting to feel forlorn as well.

Yumi started to tear up. As Jeremie and Odd left to go see Aelita for a bit, Feeling a bit uncomfortable. Cassidy stayed behind to keep her friend, Yumi, company.

**-Meanwhile-**

POUND

-Grunt-

POUND

"Oh, this machine's going to drive me bananas." A boy with strawberry blonde hair kicked the machine, but the soda dispenser would not comply with his order.

Looking over, another boy with black hair, glasses, and a little acne saw the scene unfold. "Hey that's double big news: Ulrich without Yumi and Ulrich _with_ Emily."

Sissi, the raven-haired girl, looked with disdain, then screeched, "EMILY? HOW DARE SHE? The nerve of her going after him! If Yumi's out of the picture, then _I'm_ next on the list! Speaking of Yumi, she's not taking it too well!"

"Neither are you, Sissi," Hervé, the black haired boy, said.

"Shut up!" Sissi's mind was formulating an evil plan. "I've got a plan that's just bound to make Ulrich all mine."

Before Sissi could take a step, Cassidy's stomach twisted. "Yumi, Sissi's coming."

"Where?" Yumi asked.

"High noon," Cassidy freaked out.

Sissi walked. Cassidy hastened, "If she says that Ulrich and Emily have been going out for two months, she's lying. She's just bound to get a response, and wants to get Ulrich all to herself."

"Okay, but what should I say?"

"Just say, 'Really, that long?' It'll work, trust me," Cassidy muttered.

"Quite a romance going on there," Sissi's words were soft.

Cassidy clenched her fists. She could surf by and find what anyone wanted.

Ulrich and Emily were laughing, incognizant to the world.

"Two months already, that's not that bad," Sissi asked.

"Really, that long?" Yumi surprised Sissi.

"You knew?" Sissi raised a black eyebrow.

"Yeah, we knew," Cassidy nodded.

"We're okay," Yumi said.

Yumi and Cassidy walked off.

Hervé snickered. "Looks like that plan backfired."

"If you know what is good for you, SHUT UP!" Sissi shouted.

**-At the Park-**

Aelita popped up onscreen. "Jeremie!"

**-On Lyoko-**

The pulsations grew stronger and stronger as it hit near where Aelita was. "XANA's launched another attack."

**-Back to the Park-**

"Are you feeling pulsations?" Jeremie's voice was curious and concerned.

"Yes," Aelita said. "In the Desert region. They're really strong."

"I've never seen him so active as he is now." Jeremie kept his eyes on the screen. "Sorry guys, you'll have to go back. And right away too."

Odd was unfazed by this. He loved, as one said, "Cracking heads" on Lyoko. Cassidy smiled too. She always found some way to make Lyoko fun.

"Well, as they say, when you gotta go, you gotta go."

Jeremie picked up his cell phone to call Ulrich. Then he frowned. "Ulrich has shut off his cell phone!"

"Yeah, maybe he was busy with Emily," Cassidy smiled, eyes a tad light. "Yumi, you and I will go get him."

"Why do you want to come?" Yumi asked.

"Just so you two don't end up fighting and then Jeremie would say to Aelita when we are all down in the scanner room, 'Aelita, help is on the way. I better warn you, Yumi and Ulrich are a bit, well you might say... buggy.' Then Aelita would say, 'You mean to say that they've been fighting, don't you?'" Cassidy smiled more, eyes a little whiter than planned.

"Where do you get this info?" Yumi frowned a bit.

"It comes to me each day. If it weren't for my meager skills, Ulrich would have ended up blackmailed with his diary—which contains stuff about Lyoko—and Jeremie would have been bugged left and right—both by Sissi." Cassidy's eyes turned brown again.

"Gotcha," Yumi said.

**-With Ulrich-**

Ulrich came out of the cafeteria, feeling very refreshed. Laughing with Emily cooled him down a lot. His new refreshing feeling rocked.

"Want to go for a walk, Ulrich?" Emily asked him.

"Mhm," Ulrich nodded as he walked beside her past Yumi and Cassidy.

His spirit felt a heck of a lot lighter. "It's nice to relax and not think of—"

"Hey, Ulrich," Yumi said pleasantly, "come here with us for a second."

"Hi Yumi; hi Cassidy," Ulrich was now feeling panicky inside. "I'll be right back okay?"

Emily nodded as Cassidy and Yumi took Ulrich a little farther from Emily.

Cassidy took charge, "Ulrich, XANA's woken up, and Jeremie has been trying to reach you. We need to get to the factory. And Yumi and I know that there's nothing going on with you and Emily."

"Cassidy, you keep talking to us and this would be one adventure that would rock the house," Yumi said, shocked as Cassidy splashed the info.

Ulrich nodded.

Soon they were at the factory with no problem.

Jeremie then had another flashback.

**FLASHBACK 5**

_Jeremie and his friends were congratulating Jim. (But for what?) _

**END OF FLASHBACK**

Jeremie shook his head and frowned.

"Another flashback?" Ulrich asked.

"Yeah, this time we were congratulating Jim, but we don't know what we were congratulating him for," Jeremie said, then pulled up the communication-to-Aelita window.

"Any attacks in the real world," was Aelita's main concern.

"No! Everything's quiet here. No short circuits, no giant bug invasion, no earthquakes...how about you?"

"Well, I'm almost at the activated tower, but none XANA's monsters have appeared yet. Aside from the pulsations, there's no other sign that XANA's woken up!" Aelita said.

"I wonder if this is a new tactic of his," Jeremie said.

"Odd, I don't think your suggestion would be useful right about now." Cassidy smirked a little. "How about we all go to Lyoko and figure the attack out?"

Jeremie looked at the brown-haired girl. "You're the psychic!"

"Oh, alright, fine. Jeez," Cassidy growled a little. "It's a devirtualization bug. If we get hit then game over. Here are some rubber gloves for the Super-calculator room. Use them wisely." She handed Jeremie what looked like a pair of fire-gloves. "Now can we get to Lyoko, deactivate the tower, save our skins and Return to the Past NOW?"

"Okay," Jeremie smiled.

"Hey, are you going to do that every time?" Cassidy frowned.  
"Do what every time?" Jeremie asked.

"Are you going to make me spit out the attack every time I don't feel like it?"

"Sometimes," Jeremie answered.

As soon as they were on Lyoko, Jeremie spotted four windows of his friends with red (!)'s on them.

"Everyone's here, don't worry, the devirtualization bug is the key. We'll deactivate the Torre in no time."

"Torre?" Everyone looked to Cassidy confused.

"Again, I'm sorry for my Spanish skills, _tower!_" Cassidy was exasperated.

"You know the language well," Ulrich cracked.

"Let's get to the tower por favor."

"Fine."

Everyone was almost near the tower when all of a sudden, some Krabes, Bloks and Megatanks materialized into view.

Everyone gained up and took them down. Yumi nearly fell into the digital sea, but Ulrich caught her.

As soon as Aelita was close to the tower, Cassidy noticed a moment. "Aelita, wait. Just six seconds."

As soon as it was safe, Cassidy nodded her head and Aelita went in.

Aelita rose to the top and put in the Lyoko Code.

Yumi and Ulrich really _ _ _ _ _ _.

**(A/N: Ulrich/Yumi fans, guess the word)**

**-Returning to the past now-**

"Not that bad huh," Sissi smiled.

"Really, that long," Yumi surprised Sissi again.

This time Cassidy went with Jeremie and Odd to say Hi to Aelita.

"There's Yumi," said Ulrich to Emily. "So long, now, Emily."

"So long," Emily said, and then hinted, "Ain't love grand?"

Ulrich walked over to Yumi. "Hi, I was waiting for you."  
"So was I. Two months is a really long time, but Sissi was here to keep me company." Yumi smiled.

"Thanks," Ulrich smiled back.

Sissi was deeply confused. "Buncha creeps."

"Yumi, you know about what happened on Lyoko," Ulrich blushed. "I mean, really happened."

"Now that you mentioned it, um…" Yumi blushed as well. "I'd rather you'd not talk about it to Odd, Jeremie, and Cassidy. At least, not right away."

"Yeah, I agree, not a word."

The bell rang and—speak of the devil—the trio came. "Come on Ulrich; don't forget that we've got Mrs. Hertz's classes to go to one more time." Jeremie smiled.

"Well, it wasn't all that boring on Lyoko, was it Ulrich?" Odd asked.

"You're right, Odd," Ulrich said as they sat down together as friends in Mrs. Hertz's class. "And I learned something too. Something super important."

"And I know what it is!" Cassidy giggled mischievously.


	5. The Cruel Dilemma is Cassidy fell for it

**DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN CODE LYOKO!**

**CLAIMER: I OWN CASSIDY RENE' MCGUIRE AS IT IS MY NAME TOO.**

It was a normal day at Kadic Academy. Several students were outside, listening, both bored and interested, to the Principal's drawling speech.

Odd, Yumi and Ulrich were amongst the students.

"Dear Students, this magnificent stadium is being built in close cooperation with the Board of Education. Soon, you will enjoy the latest in sports equipment and I, personally, am delighted since it is my duty to provide you with the finest working conditions possible in all areas, both intellectual and athletic. Since Juvenal said, 'A sound mind, and a sound body.'"

"Wow, can he talk; do we really have to listen to all this," whispered Odd.

Ulrich answered him. "Not really. You could have stayed with Jeremie and Cassidy if you wanted to."

"What are Einstein and Danger Psychic up to, anyway?" Yumi asked. "Danger Psychic" was Cassidy's nickname. They came up with it a few weeks ago. Cassidy never heard of the nickname as they have kept it secret.

"The usual, Jeremie's glued to his computer screen in a big cyber-conversation with his darling Aelita. Cassidy had joined him."

Yumi smiled. The three in the room are up to something.

Jeremie and Cassidy were sharing notes as he typed on his computer in his room. "Just a few more calculations to go and my devirtualization program would be completed."

"And, do you two think it'll work Jeremie and Cassidy. Do you think I'll finally have a chance to be materialized into your world and becoming somebody…somebody like you?" Aelita asked as Jeremie grabbed one of his pieces of candy to eat.

"I sure hope so. Anyway…there's one thing I'm sure of. I've never been as close to the answer as I am now." Jeremie had his heart high with hope.

"Oh…honestly, it's so hard to imagine. We could be face-to-face in the same room together—" Aelita was excited. Jeremie blushed—"We could touch each other…even _kiss."_

Cassidy held back a snicker. Jeremie's blushing and Aelita mentioning that was pure gold.

"Uh…Yeah…that'll be…uh…interesting…uh…I guess." Cassidy started shaking with hidden laughter threatening to burst out of her mouth. When Jeremie finally got his composure in check, he had his serious look back. He turned to see Cassidy with the widest smile that he had ever seen. "What's so funny?"

"Na—thing," She bleated. She loved Jeff Foxworthy's comedy so much.

Jeremie nearly cracked a grin, but he turned back to Aelita. "Now, get ready. I'm starting the test program."

He pressed the enter key and waited for a minute, Cassidy now in a whole hanging-off-the-edge-of-her-seat mode.

It failed. Jeremie banged his fist on the table beside the keyboard. Cassidy rubbed Jeremie's shoulder consolingly. He always tried his hardest when it came to the materialization program. He tried this, and he tried that, but he kept being showed he failed.

Cassidy sometimes was by his side when he failed. However, when it came to bedtime, she went up to her two-bed dorm. She had this strange idea that soon she will have a roommate, too. Ulrich, Jeremie, Yumi, and Odd had tried talking her into changing into a one-bed dorm, but this didn't move her.

"I don't get it!" Jeremie said a tad devastated.

"It's not the end of the world," Aelita said. "I'm sure, Jeremie, that one day you'll succeed."

"Aelita, I—I'm beginning to wonder if I'm up to the job. If I'm good enough for such a complicated program. I'm sorry, I'm just…tired and jumpy that's all. I better go and stretch my legs. See ya later."

Cassidy stayed behind to get a chat in with Aelita. "Any monsters pursuing, lately?"

"No, but thank you," Aelita answered.

"Odd's coming. You and I better hide." Cassidy panicked as she dove for the side of Jeremie's closet.

Aelita disappeared off-screen at the same time as Cassidy's dive.

"Cassidy, Jeremie?" Odd poked his head in as Cassidy calmed down, hidden in the shadows.

Odd looked at the computer screen. "What's this? Another one of Jeremie's materialization programs." Spying Jeremie's candy, he reached inside the bag. "Oh, wow, candy!"

Popping a piece into his mouth, Odd smiled.

Cassidy rolled her eyes. If there was supposed to be one, Odd was the glutton and comedian in their little group.

"ODD!" Jeremie's voice made both boy and girl jump. Odd accidentally spilled candy on the keyboard.

As the genius walked in, Cassidy threw a thought to Jeremie. _Thanks for that, _Genius! _You made me jump. The one out of many reasons I wanted to go here was to get a little more cognizant 360 style—_DUH!

Jeremie ignored it. "How many times have I told you _not _to touch my computer when I'm not here? There are months of work in there!"

Odd put up his hands in an "okay, okay, you got me" fashion. "Relax, Max! I didn't hurt your little toy!"

Looking at the keyboard as Odd got out of Jeremie's chair, Jeremie was _not _happy. "Oh, no, you're such a cosmic creep. Now look what you've done. Those keys are incredibly sensitive."

"Okay, okay, a little piece of candy's not going to wreck your keyboard." Odd was using defiance Cassidy could sense it.

Cassidy crawled out of the shadows. "Ever heard of a vacuum? The underside's got more cobwebs than cat hair there."

Jeremie only had his intentions of cleaning the keyboard. He did, but then turned his attention to the screen. "That's crazy. This is really mega-insane!"

He started typing on his keyboard, Cassidy and Odd eager on either side of him. It showed that…

"YES! It works. Odd you're a genius, you know that?" Jeremie was excited.

"You're a creepy genius, Odd," Cassidy smiled, seeing the joking expression on the Purple-spotted haired boy. Turning to Jeremie, she nodded. "I know that we have one shot at this."

"Who's the smart guy now? Are you going to materialize Aelita?" Odd asked.

"Well—yeah! But Cassidy's right, since I didn't see the type of programming the candy typed in!" Jeremie nodded.

"Yeah…so? There's only one Aelita," Odd smiled.

Cassidy fought the urge to Gibbs-slap him. "Odd, that's not funny!" To Jeremie she added, "We'll tell Ulrich and Yumi. Don't worry." Her eyes were clouded white with another vision. She ran out of the room to the park, Odd close at her heels.

"What are you seeing?" Odd waved his hand over her eyes.

"Something…horrible." She didn't pronounce the word "horrible" in English. It was in Spanish.

"What?" Odd asked. Kind of like "What is it" what.

"I…can't tell you!" Another Earthquake spooked the park. Odd backhand-slapped her.

Cassidy's eyes turned brown. "Thanks Odd!" She smiled a little.

**-A few minutes later…-**

Yumi shook her head. "Mm-mnh."

"Yumi, it is now or never, we may not get a second chance! What if there's some kind of bug. I'll never be able to set up the program again." Jeremie paced around his room.

"Listen, you can't just materialize Aelita like that without making a lot of preparations."

"I've boosted the scans; I've got everything going! Everything's ready!" Jeremie protested.

"What about birth certificates, school records, parent records," Cassidy came onto agreement with Yumi. "All of the above things mean that she doesn't even exist here!"

"Imagine, 'Hello, I'm Aelita, I just got here from a virtual reality.' That's a one-way ticket to the nuthouse!" Odd said.

"You know, Jeremie, it doesn't have to be today. I can wait!" Aelita's voice came in.

Jeremie surrendered. "Well, what do we do now?"

"I could put her up at my house, my folks wouldn't mind," Yumi pointed to herself non-conceited-like.

"And then after a while, we could get her a room with me!" Cassidy nodded, smiling. "I would love to get that bed I have on the left of me an owner. Plus, if Aelita needs anything and Yumi's not around, she'll have me to talk to."

Yumi and Aelita smiled.

"And you could plug into the city hall computers," Ulrich suggested. "And create a phony identity for her. Find her a new name, all the stuff she needs."

"Then," Odd came in, "you'll just have to enroll her at our school. And try to put her in our class, that'd be really cool, huh?"

Jeremie thought it over and then nodded. "Okay, we'll get started first thing tomorrow."

**-Later that night-**

Jeremie couldn't sleep. He was so excited that the adrenaline pumped through him. He looked to his inspirational Albert Einstein poster, then to his computer. Repeating the pattern two or three times, he had enough. He went over to the computer and typed in the connections to Lyoko to contact Aelita.

"Aelita are you asleep?"

Aelita popped up onscreen. "'Am I asleep?' Come on, Jeremie, you know virtual beings never sleep."

"I can't sleep a wink. I can't stop thinking about your materialization. That's keeping me up! You can imagine all the things you're gonna discover in our world!"

"You mean like sleeping," Aelita teased.

There was a click and a sleepy Cassidy walked in, fully clothed in a Mickey Mouse shirt and pink shorts, glasses on. "Yup." Cassidy yawned.

"Cassidy, what are you doing here?" Jeremie turned to her.

"Can't sleep because of Sissi, she's been giving her hair a really long brushing. And it really got annoying. She's like London Tipton on the Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Ugh!"

"Ignore her," Jeremie soothed to both Cassidy and Aelita.

"'Mind if I bunk down here for awhile? Jim's asleep. He won't notice me here when he wakes up."

"Yeah." Jeremie smiled.

"And if I catch you—" she whispered the two words as super low to Jeremie so that Aelita wouldn't hear—"I'll hit you with a pillow and then brag about it to the others minus Aelita."

Jeremie understood. "Don't worry Aelita, a pillow is soft."

"Tell me more," Aelita understood.

**-Meanwhile, at the new stadium-**

**XANA's ghosts covered the bulldozers and disappeared. Then the two came to life.**

**-Back with Cassidy, Aelita and Jeremie-**

"When you touch an object with your fingers, you have a sort of sensation. It could be a feeling of softness or of heat. It could be cold!" Jeremie explained.

"Oh, I see," Aelita nodded. "I thought you only sensed things with your brain."

"That's right, but it's a little more complicated. Here on Earth everyone has five senses, but you Aelita, you only have two of them: hearing and seeing. You can only see and hear."

**-On Lyoko-**

Aelita stood up on the first platform, hearing something, "Speaking of hearing."

Jeremie still was into the explanation. "Soon you will be able to touch and t—"

"Jeremie, I think I just heard XANA. He's up to something!"

**-Back to Earth-**

"What is all that noise about I wonder," Jeremie wondered. He was hearing something of a motor.

"Jeremie, Cassidy, XANA's launched an attack," Aelita told the two.

"Okay! Listen Aelita, go and hide in a deactivated tower. I'll contact you from the factory." He was clicking off his windows.

He turned to Cassidy, already clad in her tiger stripes shirt-and-pants combo. "I got dressed behind your back. Don't worry, Aelita didn't see." Cassidy smiled.

They went to Odd and Ulrich's dorm. "Odd, Wake up, XANA's attacking. ODD WAKE UP!" Jeremie yelled.

"What was say? What did you say about carpet tacking?" Odd got up tiredly.

Jeremie turned to Ulrich. "Ulrich, get up!" when Ulrich didn't respond, he shook the former's shoulders. "IT'S A XANA ALERT!"

Ulrich got up in shock and pulled out his earplugs. "What did ya say?"

"I SAID IT'S A XANA ALERT! XANA'S ATTACKING!" Jeremie erupted.

"Hey do you always sleep with those things in your ears?" Odd was getting up a little slow, but not too slow.

"Yeah, Odd, always. And one of these days, I'll tell you why!" Ulrich was a little disheveled.

Odd was confused.

After everyone, minus Cassidy and Jeremie, got dressed, they ran to see what befell them.

"No need to look any further, guys. This time, he picked a real winner. He's attacking us with bulldozers." Odd looked onward. "Nice going, XANA, how subtle can you get!"

"Jeremie," Ulrich said, "rush over to the lab and call Yumi. Odd and I are going to try and stop these monsters."

Cassidy said, "And what am I supposed to do? Dress in drag and do the hula in front of those vehicles?"

"Go with Jeremie," Odd said.

The brown-haired, bespectacled girl nodded.

"I'll take the front one," Ulrich shouted to Odd.

They split up and Jeremie and Cassidy got to the factory. Cassidy then called Yumi.

"Come on, Yumi, we have a huge problem."

"Do you guys realize what time it is?" Yumi said tiredly. "Bulldozers? What bulldozers?" Then she woke out of exhaustion. "WHAT?"

**-Meanwhile…-**

Ulrich and Odd were doing their best with the bulldozers but they were unsuccessful.

Odd got out and got to Ulrich. "Hey, XANA's controlling the thing! I don't know what to do Ulrich!"

"That makes two of us! You go and meet Jeremie, Cassidy and Yumi at the lab. If I can find out what XANA wants to do with these monsters that sure can help!"

"Okay, just be careful," Odd said.

Ulrich gave Odd a thumbs-up.

Odd then ran to the factory.

**-Lyoko-**

Aelita was running the fastest she could run.

**-Factory-**

"Keep your eyes open, Aelita. You never know where XANA's monsters are hiding." Jeremie told her.

Aelita checked. "Don't worry, Jeremie. No enemy in sight at the moment. But the pulse-beats are getting stronger. The activated tower can't be too far away."

"How about I go to Lyoko as her bodyguard. I've done it about a million times over!" Cassidy said.

"Okay, but be careful," Jeremie said. "You may not know when your visions may hit."

Soon Cassidy was on Lyoko.

Odd made it to the factory on time. "Aelita and Cassidy don't worry. Odd should be there soon. And now let's hope that Yumi and Ulrich are on their way."

"Rain check, Jeremie: Ulrich's trying to find out what XANA wants to do with the bulldozers. I know the answer. He's going to destroy the factory to make sure Aelita doesn't leave."

"Cassidy, even though you are a purple cat and are a dangerous psychic, you are the greatest." Jeremie half-beamed.

Cassidy's tube-holding tail flicked in contentment. "Thanks!"

"No problem. I'm sending Odd to Lyoko's Forest Sector now." Jeremie typed on the keys.

"Thanks, Jeremie," Cassidy smiled.

Odd appeared near Cassidy. "Hot stuff, Cat-Girl." Odd smiled.

"If you are flirting with me, forget it! We have a tower to deactivate, remember?"

"Okay, okay," Odd defended his own.

"If you two are finished fighting, please let me know." Aelita walked up to them.

"We weren't fighting," Cassidy said. "We were _discussing_!"

"Oh, I see."

Soon they were on their way to the activated tower. When they hit a path that went three ways, the pulsations lead in one direction.

"That way," Aelita pointed.

Then the Kankrelats came. "Talk about a reception committee." Odd was a little unhappy.

"Usually Roachsters move in groups of 5," Aelita remarked.

"Wow, looks like the committee's at full strength," Odd said.

"Well, we're surrounded, but we can fight," Cassidy pulled her tube out of her tail. _Turn into an Opus Magnum please, maestro_.

It did. "LET'S FIGHT!" Cassidy roared into the air, shocking Jeremie out of his chair.

"_Cassidy, you nearly destroyed my eardrum."_ Jeremie nearly complained.

"No time for that."

Odd took out three on his own; Cassidy took out one.

"Odd, leave the other Kankrelat. We should save that one for Yumi."

"Why?" Odd cocked his arm.

"Because, in about a few seconds, she'll be joining us."

"_How're Odd and Cassidy doing?" _Yumi asked.

"We'll need another piece of back up!" Cassidy called out.

"_That answer your question?" _Jeremie's voice came in.

"Gotcha!" Yumi smiled.

"_Okay, Odd and Cassidy, Yumi's on her way. As for Ulrich, let's just say he's fast asleep." _

Cassidy giggled a little.

"Calm down, Giggle-Box," Odd elbowed Cassidy.

Cassidy was too busy laughing to notice. When Odd elbowed her, she was half-way up a tree.

Odd laughed this time. "Helpless as a—" Odd then had a vision.

**-Odd's Anticipation-**

**Cassidy was thrown into the digital void while Yumi survived.**

**-End Anticipation-**

"Cassidy," Odd then was caught within firing range of the Kankrelat. He devirtualized.

"NO!" Yumi then came over and killed the last one.

Cassidy dropped to the floor. "Thanks for THAT, ODD!" she yelled a tad angry. "Hoped that was karma for ya!"

"Hey, Jeremie, I didn't make it in time…It is game over for Odd." Yumi was feeling remorse for this. "We'll back up Aelita in case she needs help."

"I don't want to stress you out or anything, ladies, but if the scans are destroyed, you two are on a one way trip, Yumi and Cassidy." Jeremie sounded apprehensive.

"No problem, we'll hurry," Yumi nodded. "I wouldn't mind a little nap before class."

"I would," Cassidy's virtual stomach tied up into a knot.

"Jeremie, it isn't the scanners they need to worry about!" Odd said. "I just had a vision. I saw Cassidy falling into the digital void and Yumi surviving."

"Virtualized forever?" Jeremie shook with fright. "Yumi, Cassidy!"

"We heard," said Cassidy and Yumi together.

"I'll go help them!" Ulrich said, waking up.

"Come on, Ulrich, take a look at yourself. The shape you're in, it'd be crazy!" Jeremie tried to reason.

Ulrich wasn't moved. "Odd, help me!"

Odd did.

Aelita was only several yards from the tower when the Megatank came.

It was in front of her.

"Jeremie…"

"I saw it; Yumi and Cassidy are on their way to help you! Give me a visual." Jeremie wanted to know it.

Just as the visual came up, Odd said, "There it is. That's exactly where I saw Cassidy fall, but Yumi survive!"

Soon Ulrich was on Lyoko as well.

Aelita ran, and the Megatank seemed to pinpoint. It fired, but Aelita dodged.

Yumi and Cassidy wasted no time. The girls didn't stop to chat or rest, they just kept running.

As the third female was hiding behind a tree, the Megatank rolled around to the other side and found its target. It was about to fire when Aelita got to the next hiding place.

Soon there was the chance to get to the red tower, she ran as it fired again. Yumi and Cassidy bashed into it, the bespectacled girl first. Soon Cassidy grabbed the ledge and Yumi at the same time. The Megatank was gone in the sea. "Okay, I'm going to say this, CRAP!" Cassidy screamed. She gulped in fear.

"Yumi, I'm going to have to throw you up, and hopefully on land. Two ladies in the soup is really…" Cassidy held back a shudder. If she shook, she would slip off. "If Ulrich catches you, it will be good. I won't be able to hold on for much longer."

"What?" Yumi said from below Cassidy.

"It's better you than me." Cassidy nodded. "Listen—Odd and Jeremie, you two, too—the vision I had was of you—Yumi—falling. I couldn't sleep that night; it wasn't Sissi's long hair brushing. I could sleep through that. The more I thought on it, the more I got scared."

Aelita walked over to the edge. "Do you need any help?"

"Yeah, I want you to grab Yumi when I throw her," Cassidy panted. She was right; she won't be able to hold out, especially with a girl that was one and a half years older than she was. "Ready? I'm going to count to three, and you catch her, Aelita. Time's running out. ¿Tú listas? One…two…Three!"

Soon Yumi was up on land. Cassidy was now trying to hold on her own. She was slipping. "Aelita, get to the tower. It's going to be too late for me."

Aelita showed a mournful look, but ran across the tree bridge.

"Yumi, tell Jeremie, when he has to choose me or Aelita, tell him to choose me," Cassidy was losing strength. "I'm part of Earth already. In addition to this, I have to be the sibling to my sister too. Otherwise, no one will be."

Ulrich arrived, but it was too late. Cassidy had taken the fall—literally. There was no scream, just a brave warrior falling into the sea.

Aelita entered the Lyoko Code.

**-Return to the Past (sob) NOW!-**

Cassidy hadn't returned with them. Jeremie, Ulrich, Odd, Yumi, and Aelita were mourning a little. Actually…scratch that…they were mourning a LOT!

"I never thought this was possible," Jeremie said, in a little despair, "for one of us to become…"

"This was all our fault," Ulrich pointed to him and Yumi. "If we were able to help, she would still be here."

"But there is a solution, and Jeremie knows what it is," Aelita came in.

"The materialization program. It's operational, but Aelita has to give up her place to Cassidy." Jeremie was sitting in the hot seat.

"Can you bring Cassidy back here," Ulrich asked.

"Yes, but I can only materialize _one _person—one and only one." Jeremie scratched his chin.

"Cassidy told me to tell you to choose Cassidy," Yumi said, tears in her eyes. "Since she is both part of Earth and has a sibling to look after when she isn't at Kadic."

Aelita nodded. "It's okay; I can wait a little longer."

"Okay Aelita!" Jeremie nodded, and then typed on the keyboard. "But first of all, I have to find Cassidy in the digital void."

Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich went down to the scanner room. Soon, Cassidy came out of the scanner they were standing in front of. She fell, eyes rolling almost to the back of her head, but she had support.

"It's alright, Cassidy. You're going to be okay," Ulrich said.

"Welcome home, Cat-Girl!" Odd smiled.

Cassidy felt sick.

**-back at the lab-**

"I'm happy, but at the same time, I'm sad," Jeremie said.

"Why? At least you know the program works. You just have to set it back up again." Aelita was being supportive.

"Yeah, nothing to it!" Jeremie said.

"I have faith in you Jeremie." That caused Jeremie to smile. "One day you'll be able to get me there, I'm sure!" Aelita jumped off the screen.

Soon, Jeremie was using his scooter, a little sad and a little happy. Then Yumi and Ulrich walked beside him. Cassidy, now feeling back to her original self, joined too.

Odd, who had run up ahead, stopped the quartet in their tracks. "Hey Jeremie, want some candy?"

Jeremie looked at it and got a little angry. "Hey, what are you doing with that? It's mine."

"Oh, yeah, I guess it is. Okay, no problemo, here you go."

Jeremie showed a look. "Come on, have one. Candy can fix anything…even a broken heart," Yumi patted him on the back, displacing his glasses, but she got them back on the appropriate place.

"For me, I like either Parmesan Steak and shrimp, or Shrimp Scampi, but for you, if it's candy, it's that okay?" Cassidy said.

"If you say so," Jeremie smirked a little. Then he opened his mouth. Odd threw the candy. Jeremie caught it and ate it. He did feel better now.


	6. The Frontier's all there is

**Disclaimer: I don't own Code Lyoko**

**Claimer: I own Cassidy as it is my name in this story and the plot.**

"It's fine up to now." Jeremie was typing the coordinates for the materialization program late at night in his dorm room. "I'll test this part here again." He pressed a key.

The computer had the materialization up onscreen. It had been a week ago, when Odd's magnificent jitters spilled candy on the keyboard. Cassidy was a due witness to this, as she hid underneath the table near the closet when it happened.

That was where Cassidy made the ultimate sacrifice. Cassidy sometimes had nightmares of the event, but she was getting better.

Yumi felt somewhat grateful for the event. She lived while Cassidy took the fall for her. Cassidy often called Yumi over for a little sleepover. Tonight was one of those nights. The reason was because, the former was in shock over the, as she called it, "Incident."

She couldn't just run over to Mr. Klotz and tell him what happened. Then he would tell the other teachers. The teachers would go to the principal. The principal would call the police and—to put the icing on the trouble cake—they would shut Lyoko down and _kill_ Aelita.

Yumi and the others were Cassidy's rock for a long time. On the first day, Cassidy didn't want anything to do with Lyoko until she got over the shock. On the Second day, Cassidy "dipped the toe in the water" (The water being scanner) then ran back to the elevator, and took it to the lab. Third, she allowed herself to be virtualized by Jeremie, but then committed virtual suicide whenever she saw a hole. Fourth, she got used to it, but the nightmares made her a bit skittish. Finally fifth, She was still getting nightmares, but wasn't skittish anymore.

The computer screen showed a smaller form of Aelita on screen. The feet seemed to disappear and reappear on the screen.

"Come on!" Jeremie stressed. _Aelita can't stay on Lyoko forever. She wants to come to Earth, and I want that to come true._

Three drops of sweat ran down the side of his face.

The computer tried but then a red exclamation point in a red circle showed up. Jeremie, who was sweating bullets, was a bit frustrated.

"What do you mean 'eh'? I don't believe this! What does it always happen just then? Aelita, did you deactivate the external sinusoidal modules like I told you to?" Jeremie was getting increasingly upset.

"Of course," for anybody's relief, Aelita was calm. "And I even defragmented the internal matrix."

Jeremie stood up, losing his cool before he could hold it in. _Jeremie,_ Cassidy had said the afternoon before he shut himself into his room, _don't let it get to you! You and Aelita did defragment the internal matrix, but calm down. Or, you might have to spend almost an entire day in Limbo._

_Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, zero,_ Jeremie took in a deep breath.

"Cassidy giving you advice again," Aelita asked. Aelita helped Cassidy get back to Lyoko and fighting monsters. She used a load of persuasion and calm cajoling to help the in-shock girl out of the shadows. Aelita helped Cassidy get used to the many holes on Lyoko, in the end.

Jeremie sat down and nodded until his frustrations got the best of him. "But I already did that. The system's bound to screw up if keeps getting the same data twice. If we keep working against each other, we're never going to succeed. Never."

"I'm sorry," Aelita was shamefaced.

Jeremie realized what he'd done. "No, I'm the one who's sorry, Aelita, forgive me. I shouldn't have gotten so angry."

"It's alright, but I think we should stop for tonight. I'll see you tomorrow," Aelita felt a little downhearted.

Jeremie tried to stop her from disconnecting. "No. Wait, Aelita!"

"Good night," Aelita went off-screen.

_What have I done? _Jeremie asked himself.

**-The Next Morning-**

Yumi and Cassidy walked up to the vending machines. "Hi, guys."

"Thanks for sleeping over again. I'm sorry," Cassidy smiled. She felt _really _back to normal.

"No problem." Then turning to the three boys, Yumi smiled, "Well, it looks like I'm not the one who brought her stuff late. What were you guys doing? Studying, huh?"

"Not really, Tetrix Annihilator…til three in the morning," Ulrich pulled on his shirt and the Game Boy that was on his tank top was the evidence he had.

"I should've guessed it was something like that, nice going," Yumi said, holding back a laugh.

Cassidy laughed a little.

"Thanks, how'd ya know I'd won?" Ulrich asked.

Yumi turned to Jeremie. "How are you doing, Jeremie?"

Then Cassidy said, "He was up nearly half the night. I could sense it. Then something happened and the whole materialization program was put on hold. And he couldn't sleep a wink."

"I have an awful lot on my mind." Jeremie was holding a cup of hot chocolate, but he didn't feel like sipping it.

"Oh, yeah, the usual worries about materializing Aelita?"

"No, no, well, uh, yes, but actually, there is a lot more to it than that!" Jeremie said.

Ulrich looked at Cassidy. She was back to normal, all right. "Are you sure you don't get crazy dreams to study from?"

"Yes, but I had a different nightmare last night. Something about pink and purple. I didn't understand it, but I'm not going to let it hold me back," Cassidy's smile flickered a little, but came back to a good one.

"That's good, if it was a sign, then you would have avoided Odd and Aelita forever." Yumi patted her on the back.

"Thank goodness that I didn't spook from Odd this morning," Cassidy said.

**R-I-I-I-N-G**

"I'm off," Jeremie said, "Nothing like a little math class to wake me up!" He dropped his drink and ran from his friends.

Ulrich and Yumi shared confused looks. Cassidy knew but she didn't want to spoil it.

Soon, Ulrich, Cassidy, and Odd were in math class with Jeremie, while Yumi went to Science Class.

Mrs. Mayer, the math teacher, wrote a problem as bell work on the board, then asked the students what the answer was. Cassidy eagerly raised her hand. "Yes, Cassidy."

"The answer is **(A/N: Making it up as usual!)** 25 to the 5th power or 9, 765, 625," Cassidy said.

"That's correct," Mrs. Mayer said.

Then she went on with the next lesson that they were supposed to do. She explained it then erased it. She re-wrote what she written before.

"I'll begin again since it's a bit complicated, now I want everyone…" Mrs. Mayer explained.

"Jeremie," Ulrich whispered to Jeremie.

The genius looked to Ulrich. "What is it?"

"What's going on with Aelita?"

"Well, last night we—we got into a bit of a fight," Jeremie said.

"Yeah, about what?" Ulrich asked.

"M…nothing, it's on the account of me I yelled at her and…I think she got mad. Ulrich, I really have to go!" Jeremie had a determined-yet-angry look on his face.

"Where to? The boys' room?" Ulrich was curious.

"No, ning-nong," Cassidy whispered. "He wants to go to Lyoko!"

"WHAT?" Ulrich half-yelled.

"Ulrich," Mrs. Mayer said. "Repeat what I just said!"

Ulrich hadn't a clue. "Uh…"

Cassidy was of no help. She was future flashing.

"Odd, go on, help him!" Mrs. Mayer turned to Odd.

Just like that, Odd was asleep on the table.

"Ha, ha! He's asleep," Commented one student.

Cassidy snapped out of it, laughing a little on the inside.

**-After Classes-**

"What?" Yumi said after Jeremie explained about _half_ of the plan. "No way!"

"Not for very long, just for an hour. I could go at Lunch time," Jeremie said.

"But, that's not the problem, Jeremie! The problem is the Super-calculator. You're the only one who can use it." Yumi had her arms crossed.

"But once you get the idea, it's not complicated. I could launch a simple by-transfer program, and explain the procedures to you!" Jeremie was getting a little…desperate.

"It doesn't feel right, I'm sorry Jeremie!" Yumi almost about had it.

"Yumi, listen, I had an argument with Aelita and I want to ask her to forgive me in person."

Cassidy then got a little upset. "Jeremie, she will forgive you. Don't worry. Right now, she thinks that you are mad at her. The same with you but it's the other way around."

Spying a plane up ahead, Yumi got a little more worried, "What if XANA attacks while you're there?"

"Then we just have to bring him back immediately and take his place on Lyoko. Anyways, XANA's been really quiet lately."

Yumi didn't like this plan as she had a bad feeling take place in the pit of her stomach.

**-After Lunch, now in the factory-**

"Now, I've already calculated the variable virtual mass so you don't have to worry. Since I won't be fighting, I used the default option exponential Memory Transfer, okay. As for the fractal encoding for the blocks, piece of cake." Jeremie was confident.

Yumi was shocked. "_Piece of cake?_ Hey, this might be easy for you, but it sure isn't for us. You do this all the time?"

"Well, yeah, what do you think? That I take a nap while you're on Lyoko," Jeremie asked as he got out of the chair and grabbed his notes. "Anyway, we'll stay in contact, and if you have any trouble, just check my notes."

Jeremie's book looked to be almost ALL of the Chronicles of Narnia books put together, but it had post-it sticky notes of many colors sticking out of it. Yumi was sure the notes would be like in a small-organized notebook, but she was wrong.

She winced.

Soon Jeremie hit the scanner room. He was half-nervous, and Cassidy tried talking him out of it. Jeremie ignored her.

Odd smiled awkwardly and said in a British accent, "Your scanner is waiting, sir."

Ulrich and Odd fanned out to allow Jeremie some room. Cassidy quickly climbed up the steps and said, "You gotta call this off. Jeremie will be in grave danger."

"Why can't you do it?" Yumi said.

"Do you _think_ I tried," Cassidy hissed. "GOD, I tried everything from sweet-talking to bribery! I even threatened to Gibbs slap him!"

"He still won't be moved?" Yumi looked to her friend.

"If I tried _everything_," Cassidy growled.

**-In the Scanner Room-**

Jeremie looked up at the scanner. "Okay, be brave Jeremie."

"Hmm?" Odd asked.

Jeremie walked in.

Cassidy took the mike from Yumi. "Jeremie! There's still time to turn back!" She yelled.

That didn't move Jeremie, either. He stepped into the scanner.

"Have a good trip," Ulrich smiled.

Cassidy rolled her eyes.

Yumi, who had gotten the mike back, typed in the coordinates. The other night Cassidy sleep-taught her how NOT to make a capture error. That proved helpful. But, Yumi forgot it already.

Cassidy bit her nails nervously.

Yumi said to Jeremie, "I'm starting the transfer now."

Cassidy's stomach swirled nervously. _Please, change your mind Jeremie, before it's too late!_

Yumi looked to Cassidy, who was frowning and nervous. "Jeremie might be okay," she whispered.

Turning back to the screen, she pressed the enter key. "Go!"

Cassidy didn't feel any better.

Jeremie's body was scanned for the second time in his life. But something went wrong.

Alarms went off, Cassidy covered her ears, and when the scanner opened, she passed out.

**-A few minutes later-**

Odd was trying to wake Cassidy up. This was something they didn't expect.

Meanwhile, Ulrich and Yumi were waiting with baited breath for the scan results from Aelita.

Aelita came onscreen with the results. "I just scanned the data chain. Yumi made a data capture error that blocked the system."

Yumi gasped.

"Which means that the memory used for transfers was deactivated at the worst time," Aelita said.

Cassidy began to stir.

"Any idea why Cassidy passed out?" Odd asked.

"She was feeling sick," Ulrich said quickly.

"But—where is he?" Yumi was worried for the sake of Jeremie.

"He wasn't transferred to Lyoko, and he didn't come back to you, and so he's—he's out there and—locked somewhere between us," Aelita said.

Cassidy then opened her eyes. "Limbo."

"Don't worry; he's okay!" Aelita seemed to smirk a little.

"Aelita," Jeremie's voice sounded, "you have to retrieve memory!"

"Are you in contact with him?" Ulrich asked.

"Yes, well, let's say that I think what he thinks. It's as if he were a part of my mind," Aelita was sitting on ice in the Ice Sector.

"And—can we get him back?" Yumi asked.

"We will!" Cassidy pulled herself to her feet, but she got an equilibrium attack, and then fell to her knees.

"Cassidy!" Odd got to Cassidy, but Cassidy put a finger up and soon she had full control again.

"If I have an attack like that, _please_ don't worry about me," Cassidy said. "It's normal."

Odd nodded.

"Yes, Jeremie says we have to recover the memory in the four passage towers," Aelita nodded. "And redirect it to the three scanners to complete the transfer. But it's going to take time."

"Well that's a hopeful sign, how much time?" Ulrich was worried on the inside now.

"Well, the time it takes to go each one of the regions, and do all the necessary manipulations and reinitialize the systems, according to Jeremie, one of your afternoons," Aelita said.

"I'll go and help you—I brought Jeremie's laptop—" Cassidy began.

"Why?" Yumi asked.

"So NO ONE gets in trouble. Then, if someone did get in trouble, Ulrich would have to do an act that he would rather wrestle a bear than do it," Cassidy smiled.

"What about classes," Odd asked.

Cassidy gave him an extremely strange look. "My excuse that never EVER fails: I'm sulking and I'd rather be alone! Jeremie's excuse could be the same. I'll come for science class, but after that, I'm defending Aelita."

"That means there's no time to lose," Ulrich said.

"Okay, I'm off!"

Aelita got up and ran off to the passage tower.

Yumi was watching from the computer screen. "Thank you, Aelita!"

"Look, Yumi, it wasn't your fault. Jeremie is the only one who can run the computer without it breaking down." Ulrich tried for comfort.

"Yes I know. The big problem is as long as Jeremie is in Limbo we can't go to Lyoko, and if XANA attacks—"

"I said that I have Jeremie's laptop and, I haven't told you that Odd brought Ulrich's Game Boy, so we have plenty of memory to operate just ONE scanner!" Cassidy got up again. This time she didn't fall.

"Okay," Odd looked at her strangely. Then he turned to Yumi. "Don't sweat it, Yumi. Aelita's going to get Jeremie home soon, I'm positive. XANA won't have time to do anything!"

"You'd better go back to school, Cassidy only for science. If we're all absent, they'll get suspicious. I'll stay here, just in case," Yumi said.

* * *

"Cassidy," Mrs. Hertz said.

"Here," Cassidy said eagerly.

"Hervé," Mrs. Hertz said.

"Present!"

"Valerie," Mrs. Hertz asked.

"Here!"

"Jeremie? Jeremie isn't here?" Mrs. Hertz asked.

"He went out to sulk in the forest, and doesn't wish to be disturbed," Cassidy said.

"Well, I hope he snaps out of it soon," Mrs. Hertz said softly. "Now for chemistry…"

Beforehand, Cassidy had an idea.

"I have something we could rehearse in case Sissi gets suspicious, boys. Let's huddle up!" Cassidy smiled as the three younger students piled into the elevator. "Okay, this is a cinch." She was shaking excitedly. "When she says, 'Oh, with that kind of answer, now I'm sure you're up to no good!' Odd, you say, 'Careful you, Sissi. Well actually, Jeremie's working on a new project to make worms intelligent,' and when she's all confused, Odd you continue with, 'That's right! And he would like to test it on you!'" Cassidy smiled excitedly. "Then I will come in and ask, 'Which game show would they go head to head with: The _Weakest_ Link or Who Wants to be a Millionaire?' Ulrich, you voice your choice and you say your reason—" Cassidy giggled with utter excitement.

**-Back to the Present-**

Sissi then said, "Hey what are you three dorks up to anyway."

"None of your business," Ulrich hissed.

"Oh, with that kind of answer, now I'm sure you're up to no good," Sissi got suspicious.

Odd smiled. "Careful you, Sissi. Well actually, Jeremie's working on a new project to make worms intelligent."

Sissi looked confused.

Odd continued, "That's right! And he would like to test it on you!"

"I wonder what game the two would be most likely to go on: Who Wants to be a Millionaire or the _Weakest _Link," Cassidy snickered.

"Weakest Link," Ulrich smiled. "It would be funny to see that worm kick Sissi off."

"WHAT?" Sissi was outraged.

"Sissi, what is the meaning of this?" Mrs. Hertz said.

"These three—they were insinuating…"

"Who, us?" Cassidy said sweetly. "We would never insinuate a thing."

"That's right," Odd smiled.

Mrs. Hertz grabbed Sissi by the arm and dragged her out the door.

**-After Science Class-**

Cassidy went over to the factory. "How's Aelita doing, Yumi?"

"Yumi, I'm at the second tower!" Aelita said.

"That's halfway done," Cassidy said, impressed. "We'll be done before we know it."

"Great, Aelita, memory recovered," Yumi sweated. "Two down, two to go."

"Then Jeremie can come back home!" Cassidy sniffed in emotional pride. "This will be excellent."

Soon, Ulrich and Odd came in the room. "How are you doing, Yumi? Let me see!"

"How's it going?" Odd asked.

"Aelita just left the second tower. Two to go. Things are going almost too well." Yumi sat in the chair, worried.

"I'm heading to the Forest," Aelita said.

Aelita switched Sectors.

"Hey, you oughtta relax a little bit," Ulrich was concerned for Yumi. "Aelita will be finished soon. Why don't ya go back to school; it'll take your mind off it!"

"Yeah, we'll take over for you. We're not missing class; we're supposed to be in the library." Odd was optimistic.

Yumi handed the controls to Ulrich. "Okay!" She went over and grabbed her bag. Then she went over to the elevator. "I'll see you guys later."

"Yumi will be okay. She'll just doodle, but it'll be okay. Drawing will help her as well." Cassidy sighed.

"Aelita, I'm replacing Yumi," Ulrich said. "Do you read me?"

Aelita nodded. "Yes, loud and clear, Ulrich. I'm almost at the third tower."

She went into the forest and started for the next tower. Along the way, some Kankrelats came.

"Is Jeremie okay?" Ulrich asked, a little forcefully than he wanted to.

"A little worried, but yeah, he's okay," Aelita kept running. Then the first Kankrelat came. "Uh, oh, trouble!"

The Kankrelat fired. It missed as Aelita jumped out of the way and behind a tree.

"Odd, Cassidy, we got a problem over here!" Ulrich said.

Odd put down his game and ran over to Ulrich. Cassidy was still watching. "I'm over here Ulrich." Cassidy winked.

"Aelita, I get the feeling that you're not alone out there," Ulrich was getting worried.

"You're right, Ulrich, I'm not!" Aelita said.

Three more Kankrelats came. "Better watch it, Aelita, ya gotta run! Three more monsters coming. Hurry up!" Ulrich was now fully worried.

Aelita kept running through the forest, the Kankrelats not far behind.

"Careful, in front of you," Ulrich said.

Aelita was surrounded on the path. But there was no time to play the ingénue.

Ulrich found something. "Aelita, on your left, there's a platform."

Aelita found it and jumped for it. Along with a laser show, but she never got hit. She got over there just in time and she ran to the passage tower. "Well done, Jeremie would be _proud_ of you." Ulrich sounded relieved.

"Of course he would, Ulrich. He's always proud of her." Cassidy smiled.

"I'll get you connected." Aelita got in the tower.

Memory was now 75%. They only needed the last tower, which was in the Mountain sector now.

"I've heard this come out from a comedian's mouth once, but, uh, HOOCHIE MAMA'S COMING HOME!" Cassidy smiled. "Only instead of Hoochie Mama, we have Jeremie. So the frase here is…JEREMIE'S COMING HOME!"

"That's three down, what should we do now? Should we call Yumi?"

"We haven't needed her up til now, but we'll call at the slightest hint of trouble." Cassidy smiled.

Meanwhile, Yumi was learning about communications around the world. TVs and radios were first after relays. Then computers entered.

Yumi also was drawing a picture of Jeremie. She couldn't stop getting him off her mind, so seeing the picture really calmed her down a few notches.

Aelita ran out of the tower. "I'm in the mountain region. Just one more tower to go."

"Aelita will stop soon," Cassidy's eyes were getting a little light.

Cassidy was right. "Why is she stopping?" Odd asked.

"Bloks, Odd," Cassidy said.

"Oh," Odd and Ulrich said together.

"Ulrich, I'm at the tower, but it's being guarded by two Bloks. XANA's gotten the message." Aelita hid behind a rock formation.

"There's no way you can get through," Ulrich asked.

"No, none," Aelita said. "And if I don't transfer the memory from the tower, we'll lose Jeremie for good."

"There's gotta be a way, Aelita," Ulrich said.

"Wait! Jeremie says that there may be a way of retrieving memory elsewhere."

"But where? In another tower, another computer?"

"Another tower is impossible, and Jeremie's convinced that an external computer's power wouldn't be enough to operate the three scanners," Aelita said.

Cassidy came in while on the left side. "There may be a way for just ONE scanner Aelita."

"Just one scanner, I'll check with him," Aelita said.

"But why only one? To bring Jeremie back all THREE scanners are needed," Odd was worried.

"Think it over, Odd, if one of us could succeed in getting transferred to Lyoko, Aelita would be able to get into the tower," Ulrich said.

"I volunteer to go to Lyoko and pop those Bloks faster than you can say, 'Track meet isn't today!'" Cassidy said.

"Ulrich, Cassidy, Odd," Aelita said, "I've got a problem. It's becoming harder and harder to contact Jeremie. I'm afraid he's starting to delete himself!"

"Like Dobby said, 'Now that history is to repeat itself.' I don't know why that popped into my mind, but it did," Cassidy said. **(A/N: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets came out in 2002, so this is correct)**

"What do you mean Aelita?" Ulrich asked.

"He's disappearing. The computer is confusing him with an outdated file. You've gotta bring him back as soon as possible." Aelita was worried, as was the rest of the gang, minus Yumi.

"Okay we have no choice," Ulrich said.

"I'll call Yumi," Cassidy said.

"You called her last week," Ulrich shouted.

Cassidy shrunk into the shadows, shamefaced. Saying "last week" made her, to say it obviously, feel weak.

"Cassidy had been under pressure from the 'incident'. You really need to yell at her?" Odd said.

"Sorry, Cassidy, I couldn't control myself," Ulrich comforted. "You can call Yumi if you like."

"Thanks," Cassidy said, pulling out her Motorola T725 and dialing.

Soon Yumi came to the factory. "And thank you for bringing the laptop," Yumi said to Cassidy.

"No problem," Cassidy was in the shadows still.

"Did Ulrich yell at you?" Yumi asked.

Cassidy nodded as she crawled out of the shadows, shaking like an underfed stray dog. She got up and got into the elevator. She wanted to help.

She got into the scanner as Yumi connected the laptop. "Okay now all we can do is hope."

Then she got to the monitor and keyboard. "Aelita, Cassidy's going and try to reach you. The computer's connected what should I do now?"

"You've got to configure the auxiliary port to transfer the memory. Here's how you do it," Aelita explained.

Yumi typed in the instructions. "Okay, Aelita, I did it. I've just entered all the data."

"Good, Yumi. You can transfer Cassidy now," Aelita said.

"Transfer, Cassidy," Yumi looked at the enter key.

"Well, go on, hurry up!" Odd pushed.

"Cassidy," she said.

"I'll be okay, Yumi, this time I won't fall into the—" Cassidy shuddered.

"Don't need to finish," Yumi said, a tad brokenly. "GO!"

The thing wasn't enough. "Not enough memory. We came so close, but it's just not enough." Yumi almost panicked. "We need another ten bytes."

"Yumi," Cassidy called, "use the Game Boy! It has some bytes, go for it."

Yumi did it and Cassidy was transferred to Lyoko. "Hey, Aelita, time for those Bloks to go."

Cassidy got her tube, turned it into a gun, and shot the Bloks. "JEREMIE IS COMING HOME!"

Aelita ran into the tower and transferred the last bit of memory. "We did it. We retrieved the scanners' memories."

Jeremie was floating around in the Limbo asleep. "Jeremie," Aelita said. "Jeremie, can you hear me? Jeremie…wake up."

Jeremie did and floated around...then saw a familiar person. "Jeremie," she said.

"OH…Aelita!" They went towards each other, determined to touch each other's fingertips. They did. It was a pleasant moment, sweet too.

Then Jeremie came out of the scanners. Everyone, including Cassidy, was excited and scared at the same time.

They took him to Jeremie's room. The rehearsed excuse was that he passed out from the sulking and the heat, but they never used it.

Jeremie then awoke. "How are you feeling," Ulrich asked.

"It—It was—FANTASTIC!" Jeremie said.

Cassidy let out an exciting whoop. The other's joined in. Then the brown-haired female laughed. "We rehearsed a funny joke with Sissi. Ulrich, Odd, and I." she was still laughing.

"Your crazy idea of going to Lyoko gave us a real scare." Yumi hung on one side of Jeremie.

"Now I'm bushed," said Ulrich.

"Who are you? Sleeping Beauty?" Odd asked. "With what we did today I think we should celebrate."

"How about tomorrow?" Cassidy said. "It is Sunday tomorrow after all."

"Sounds good." Yumi then turned to Cassidy and said, "You feel like coming to my house tonight?"

"Sure, just allow me to grab the essentials: Toiletries…" Yumi grabbed Cassidy and dragged her to her room.

Ulrich and Odd went to bed.

"I thought that you were mad at me," Aelita said.

"That's what Cassidy said before lunch," Jeremie said. "I thought that you were mad, Aelita, but I understood how you felt about me when—when you came to get me." Jeremie blushed.

"Jeremie when you're really in love, does it mean we fight all the time," Aelita asked.

"No, not all the time," Jeremie said, "but it can happen."

"At least that didn't happen with Ulrich and Yumi," Aelita smiled.

"That's true. Cassidy knows when two teammates are going to fight, but she prevents it." Jeremie knew what he was talking about, but he was glad that it didn't happen between his friends.

Aelita nodded. "We'll find that materialization program soon. I'm positive."


	7. AELITA'S COMING TO EARTH AT LAST

**I don't own Code Lyoko, but I do own Cassidy.**

**FINALLY, The season finales at last. Aelita's coming to Earth.**

Jeremie was up late at night. "I'm sure it's going to work this time. Time for Plan Alpha!" He smiled.

The green plus on the screen was a tremendously great sign. The genius minimized the window then called Yumi.

"Yumi! Yumi it's me; Okay I just launched Plan Alpha. My five dry runs have all worked."

Yumi came in from the other line. "Okay, tomorrow, I'll talk to my parents."

"That's great," Jeremie said. "I'll tell Odd, Cassidy, and Ulrich."

"See you tomorrow," Yumi said.

After they hung up, Jeremie went to bed and dreamt of the time that he and Aelita touched fingers. It was a sweet, passionate memory that only he, Aelita, and Cassidy shared.

It made the boy feel all a flutter.

The next morning, at the Ishiyama household, Yumi's parents were finishing off breakfast when she walked into the kitchen. "Uh…Mom and Dad, can I talk to you for a second? It's about my pen pal—uh—you haven't changed your minds about her living here for a while."

"No, but tell us a little bit about her, Yumi. We—we don't even know her name," Yumi's dad came in.

"Aelita!" Yumi said.

"Aelita what?" her mom pushed a little.

"It's Aelita—" Yumi heard Cassidy's advice, _Stones._ "Uh-um Stones."

"Is she Japanese?" her father tapped his fingers on the table a little.

"Well—um—yeah, she is!" Yumi was lying like a pro…make that a pro times 100.

"And what do her parents do, dear?" Yumi's mother asked.

"They—uh—they work with computers," Yumi lied.

Yumi's mom and dad shared an approving look, and then the latter stood up. "Well, alright, she's welcome to stay with us."

"That's FANTASTIC; I _ADORE_ YOU!" Yumi was excited, both for the fact that lying worked, and that Aelita could stay with them. She kissed her dad, and hugged her mom. "You won't regret it. She's really _so_ nice. Bye, now, see you tonight!" and she ran out the door.

**-Principal-**

"Very well then, and what is your cousin's name, Odd," the Principal asked.

"Aelita." Odd was smiling.

"Hm…Aelita…and uh where does she come from?" Mr. Delmas asked.

"She's from Canada," Odd said confidently.

The principal looked a hint suspicious, but ignored that feeling. "Well, her papers are in order and your parents have recommended her highly so I see no reason why she can't attend school here. Let me know when she arrives."

When Odd and Ulrich got outside they high-fived each other, excited. "YES!" Ulrich shouted.

They laughed with a tone of victory. "FANTASTIC!" Odd smiled.

They walked until they were stopped by Jim.

"Okay, what are you two up to, huh?" he asked.

Odd showed a smile.

"You know this building is off-limits to students, especially at 8:00 in the morning!" Jim growled.

"We had an appointment with the principal, Jim, about Odd's cousin attending school!" Ulrich said.

"Oho, what a lame excuse. What do you think I am, huh, an idiot?" Jim asked.

"Well…" Odd began.

"Quiet," Jim demanded. "Yeah and you'll bet that I'm not onto your pranks with Jeremie, Cassidy, and Yumi. You disappear in the park like some sort of magic, you plot in you rooms."

"Hey, it's not a crime!" Odd smiled innocently.

"Maybe not. Now you listen up, one of these days I'm going to find out what the five of you are hiding. And now, to the cafeteria, hurry up."

When Odd and Ulrich were outside, they walked in silence before Ulrich spoke. "Ya know what I think? We gotta be careful about Jim. If he keeps playing detective, he's gonna find our secret passage."

"Hey! Hey, guys." Yumi caught up to Odd and Ulrich. "Great news: My parents said okay."

"So did the principal. Odd that was a pretty good letter you faked from your parents." Ulrich smiled to Odd.

"I can't say I'm proud of what I did, but it was for a good cause," Odd said innocently, even though he felt guilty.

Yumi's phone rang. "Cassidy?" a pause then…"On our way."

The trio ran around the cafeteria and up to Jeremie's dorm room.

Jeremie was typing, and Cassidy was excited and nervous when the three came.

"How are you doing, Cassidy?" Ulrich asked.

"I'm giddy. Absolutely giddy," Cassidy smiled. "I'm excited and nervous at the same time; it feels like I'm on a sugar high right now."

"Okay," Ulrich said uncertainly.

Jeremie typed in code after code in the computer with the others waiting with baited breath.

Cassidy paced around, looking at the screen while doing so. She knew but wasn't sure herself if she was right.

Then after the codes and configurations were typed in the computer, it was the computer's turn to process the verdict: Would Aelita stay on Lyoko (Alternatively, would Jeremie fail) or is today's the day (Alternatively, did Jeremie succeed)?

Then the computer said…

A.

Big.

Gorgeously.

Green.

PLUS!

"That's it; we've got it this time! It works! It works!" Jeremie was excited. "I can hardly believe it."

Cassidy stopped in her pacing, ran up to Jeremie and hugged him. "Jeremie, you are the GREATEST! WE DID IT! TOGETHER!" she squealed.

She was able to pull Jeremie out of his chair and off the ground. Then, she put him down, let out a happy whoop, then said, "YE—HAW! WE DONE FOUND A GOLD NUGGET IN THE GOLD MINE! YEAH—HOO!" She jumped up and down.

"Yay!" The others cheered then hugged Jeremie.

"Get Aelita up. She's going to LOVE this!" Cassidy buzzed with excitement.

"On it!" Jeremie smiled happily.

Soon Aelita was up on the computer screen. "Hi, guys!"

"Aelita: WE FOUND THE KEY TO—" Cassidy shouted until Odd covered her mouth.

"Quiet, SHOUTER. You're going to give it away."

Cassidy pulled his hand from her mouth. "Give what away? She's going to know anyway." Turning to Aelita, she started again, "WE FOUND THE KEY TO MATERIALIZATION! AND WE'RE WAITING FOR YOU HERE!" She then danced a happy acting-on-the-spot jig. "I'm just so excited. Today's the day!"

Jeremie was BLOWN AWAY by the dangerous psychic's excited yells. "I…it works." He was shaken a little.

"Oh, Jeremie, that's so great. I can't believe it's true!" Aelita smiled.

"Better get used to it fast because it's time to take the big jump. And then it's, bye-bye XANA!" Odd came in.

"Hold on!" Jeremie placed the materialization disc inside a blank CD case and set it down. "It's not that simple. First, I've got to set up the program in the super-calculator. Then Aelita will have to get to the passage tower in Lyoko's Forest region. That's where she's going to get devirtualized, before she appears in the flesh for the first time _inside one of the scanners_."

"In that case, I'm off to the forest right now!" Aelita smiled.

"Okay and _we'll _go to class in the meantime, and afterwards the factory." Jeremie gave the battle plan…if it was a battle plan.

"I'll see you later my friends." Aelita saluted.

"We'll be six for dinner tonight."

"Cassidy, do you always dance when you are excited?" Ulrich was confused.

"Yeah! I love it! It's great!"

Aelita switched sectors.

Jeremie grabbed the wrong CD case, but Cassidy picked the right one. (_Just in case, _something inside her told her).

Soon they were off and running to classes…until Jim got in the way.

Jeremie stopped. Cassidy tripped on her shoelace and fell. Yumi tripped and fell over Cassidy. Ulrich collided with Yumi, joining the tangle. And Odd tumbled onto the unintentional dog pile.

"Cassidy, why did you have to fall," Yumi asked.

"I didn't mean to," Cassidy panted. She couldn't get up, nor could she wiggle out of the pile. "If it weren't for the BFC, then we wouldn't be in this confounded mess."

"What's wrong, up to no good again, aren't you?" Jim said.

"What, no 'can I get you out of this mess' or 'are you guys okay'?" Cassidy groaned.

"Don't strike that tone with me, young lady," Jim yelled.

"Jim!" Mr. Delmas came.

"Our hero," Yumi managed to smile.

"What is going on here," Mr. Delmas said.

"Oh, I'm glad you're here, sir. I don't know what's going on, but eh, these little devils are up to no good and I intend to find out what it is," Jim said.

"Yes, another one of your absurd stories about secret plots and passages?" Mr. Delmas shot Jim a disapproving look.

"What do you mean 'absurd'?" Jim asked.

"You heard what I said, absurd, Jim," Mr. Delmas said.

"But, I um…"

"Now listen. Your paranoid behavior and your one-track mind concerning these children are getting on my nerves. You're a physical education teacher, not a detective, Jim," Mr. Delmas sighed then looked to the pile behind Jeremie. It looked like a blizzard messed the four others up.

"And you could have at least helped them! Ms. McGuire was right. You should have asked if they were okay instead of acting like they were up to no good."

Cassidy smiled, even though the weight of her friends was almost enough to kill her.

"Thank you, sir," Her chin rested on the floor.

As soon as the four teens were back up on their feet, Cassidy bent over to tie her shoe. Double knotting it, she muttered, "Bet that was a floor burn and a half."

**-Lyoko-**

Aelita went over to the barrel of paths, and found that the tower was close by. "There it is."

The tower also was guarded by Bloks. "Jeremie, I'm going to need help!"

**-Back to Earth-**

Soon Yumi was in Italian class and the others were in Biology. "Animals live in all land, air, and sea regions," Mrs. Hertz began.

Cassidy began to fidget in her seat. She was having difficulty sitting still so much that she sat on the floor beside her seat. She was able to sit still there.

Jeremie looked to her. "Cassidy, you don't see the other students sitting on the floor, do you."

"I'm having a hard time sitting in my seat. Sitting here, I feel better."

Jeremie left the psychic alone after that.

"It won't be long now!" Odd smiled to Jeremie.

Jeremie nodded in agreement.

**-In Yumi's Italian Class-**

"So in Italian, the word città, which of course means city, is invariable. Who can give me another example?" Mr. Fumet asked.

**-Back to science-**

Jeremie's laptop beeped. He opened it up underneath the table and saw a red exclamation point.

Odd looked too, as did Cassidy. "Aelita's in danger," Cassidy whispered.

"Obviously, this phenomenon depends on certain factors. Who can tell us which ones? Jeremie? Go ahead; we're listening." Mrs. Hertz kind of favored Jeremie and Cassidy.

Cassidy whispered Jeremie the right answer super low that Mrs. Hertz couldn't hear. Then Jeremie said the right answer. **(A/N: To which I don't know)**

"That's correct."

The bell rang and Cassidy, Jeremie, Odd, and Ulrich dashed out of the room.

"Ulrich, it's your turn!" Cassidy said.

"For what?"

"Calling Yumi, ning-nong!" Cassidy creased a brow.

Ulrich called Yumi and soon, she was in the running as well. "'Mind telling me what's going on?"

"XANA's at it again," Jeremie and Cassidy said together.

"He knows the end is near, and he's not going down without a fight," Odd said.

Soon they were in the factory. Cassidy checked her pockets. The CD was still there. "Whew!" she panted.

"What's 'whew'? XANA's still putting Aelita in danger," Jeremie was mad.

"I salvaged another CD for you," The brown-haired, bespectacled girl smiled.

"Never mind, head for the scanners," Jeremie was nervous. If Aelita was killed, then his research for the materialization program was for naught.

Jeremie pulled up Aelita. "Help is on the way!"

"Better hurry up," Aelita was getting worried.

"Once the coast is clear, go to the center of the tower, and I'll launch the program," Jeremie said.

Cassidy placed the CD case on the chair arm. "Here, in case you picked up Odd's—" she whispered the word as super low to Jeremie so Odd wouldn't hear—"video. Something inside me said, 'Just in case.' Cross your fingers, we need the utmost hope."

Jeremie nodded.

Soon everyone was on Lyoko except Jeremie. He was a supervisor.

"Okay, Jeremie, we're here," Ulrich announced.

"That's great! Get ready, guys, I'm launching the materialization program immediately."

After he let the CD go in, the worst music ever heard was heard.

"Oh, no, what have I done?" Jeremie lamented.

"Let me guess: you put in Odd's video in there?" Cassidy sighed. "Take it out and put in the CD that I gave you."

"At least your intentions were correct!" snorted Ulrich.

Jeremie took out Odd's CD and put in the correct one. "Okay, thanks, Cassidy."

"I not only helped you. I also kept Jim from finding out. I could sense him following us when we were running through the park, but he didn't find our secret passage, thank goodness," Cassidy was filled with relief.

They took the Bloks down. But then the Megatanks were coming.

_Turn into a sword like Ulrich's,_ Cassidy told her tube. It did.

She took to Ulrich's side, but then a…sensation went over her. She held her sword right, but she felt different. _For Aelita's sake, _said another voice, _like this._

Cassidy inwardly nodded.

Ulrich saw this. "Cassidy, are you okay."

She could not talk or move, but was okay.

"Jeremie! Cassidy isn't moving, she's just standing there."

"Is she having a vision?"

"I don't feel or see any signs…wait! Here's one," Ulrich said.

She moved toward the 'Tank. "Leave them. Alone…NOW!" The voice wasn't hers.

The 'Tank was moving strangely as well. Instead of moving forward, it was involuntarily making strange movements backwards. Bumping into a tree, it exploded.

"Oh, my, goodness, CASSIDY!" Yumi yelled. She moved toward the Cat.

"NO!" Cassidy said. Her eyes were the same color at first sight. "Get Aelita to the tower! I'll take the Megatank."

As the next Megatank moved forward, Cassidy placed a hand in front of her. "STOP! Leave, now!"

Aelita got to the center of the platform.

"Are you ready," Jeremie asked.

"Ready!" Aelita said.

"Okay, Code: Earth!" Jeremie said.

Aelita was lifted up into the center of the first and second platforms. The screens whirled around and round her and she disappeared.

Cassidy soon lost the sensation. "What just happened?" she asked.

"Something amazing." Ulrich pulled her in. Soon they met up with Odd and Yumi and soon, they were on Earth.

Everyone was facing the only scanner left. Jeremie included.

The scanner worked hard and the doors opened. The smoke was obscuring the silhouette in the scanner. As the smoke cleared, Jeremie was excited and proud.

"She's here at last!" Jeremie said.

A pink-haired girl was curled up in the scanner. She looked like a normal human being (Curved ears, and regular clothes). She wore a dark pink jacket over a yellow shirt. Her skirt looked to be maroon. Her shoes were pink.

She opened her green eyes and smiled. "Welcome to Earth," Jeremie whispered in a normal tone.

"YAY!" Cassidy yelled.

Ulrich shouted, "YEAH!"

Everyone joined the two cheerers. "Aelita's here!" Shouted Cassidy. She danced another acting-on-the-spot jig.


	8. OOPS! Aelita has a link

**I own Cassidy and the plot. So sorry for the lateness. I had minor surgery a few days ago. If you want to get the details, PM me.**

**-FROM WHERE WE LEFT OFF-**

"Welcome to Earth." Jeremie was in awe of what happened. Aelita had come to Earth.

Soon, Cassidy led the charge and everyone cheered. Even Cassidy did a little excited dance.

**-Back in the Present-**

Aelita tried standing up, but her legs shook and she sat back down. Cassidy noticed this and stopped dancing. "Do you need any help, Aelita?" she said consolingly.

Ironically, Aelita asked, "Do you need any help?" to Cassidy and Yumi before the "incident" occurred. She helped Yumi get back up on land, and Cassidy had made the willing sacrifice.

Back in the present, Aelita nodded. "I would like that!"

With Jeremie's help, the two pulled their pink-haired friend up onto her feet. Cassidy hugged her excitedly-but-gently. "We're so glad that you are finally able to join us on Earth." She smiled.

Everyone nodded.

Then Cassidy pulled back, put up a hand as if she was holding a drink and said, "First a toast to Jeremie, who always tried his hardest, even in his failures. Good job Jeremie."

Everyone, minus Aelita (who was confused), Jeremie (who was blushing), and Cassidy (who was holding her pose), clapped their hands.

"Dos, to Odd, whose candy spill not only saved my life, but gave Jeremie hope to keep going."

Jeremie, Yumi, Ulrich, and this time, Aelita applauded. Odd glowed in pride.

"Thirdly, to Aelita, whose consoling manner had been the…" she cleared her throat, "…best in the months of research and tests."

Aelita blushed for the first time. Everyone, minus Cassidy (who had tears of pride in her eyes), clapped.

"Cuatro to Yumi, because…who could ever have a fan-throwing helper and friend like her?" Cassidy choked on her own words. The pride was growing. "Without her…I think we'd be missing someone who is mature to this adventure!"

Everyone clapped.

"Fifth to Ulrich, who is a master with the sword. Without him…who would give some of the sarcasm in his words?"

Everyone clapped.

"Lastly, but not _least_, me. I don't have a word of pride to myself, I just want to do it."

"There are reasons," Ulrich smiled. "You are quick and clever, you can keep one of us from fighting with the other, and you are psychic."

"Plus you do the dangerous stuff for us sometimes," Odd added. "You kept Yumi from falling into the digital sea."

"And you kept me from pressing the wrong number on the vending machine," Jeremie smiled.

It was as if they all had rehearsed it. "And…" Yumi added. "You are a great friend."

Cassidy glowed in the same pride that her purple-clad friend had. "Here's to Code: Earth. Without it…Aelita wouldn't have breathed her first breath here or come out of the scanner today."

Everyone nodded. The speech touched everyone in the heart.

"Truer words have never been better spoken." Jeremie was welled up with pride by her speech.

"This day has me wound up tighter than ever. We just made—" she whispered "_secret_—" she got up to normal ranges—"history!"

"Uh-oh, speaking of history," Ulrich panicked, "We need to hurry up and get there."

"And I have literature," Yumi said.

They compiled into the elevator and took it up to the main entrance. Aelita was in awe of this. "Your world is so beautiful!" She exclaimed.

"Oh, but it gets better, Aelita," Jeremie placed a hand on her shoulder.

They got out into the solar light. To them the light was even brighter.

Soon they got to school, and Aelita had jitters. "Hey, relax, Aelita, don't worry; it's just a history class."

"I'd feel a lot better if it were a class in computers. I don't know anything about history," Aelita said.

"Don't worry. One cool thing about school is that you are here to learn!" Cassidy was confident.

"If this were a computer class, you could be the teacher," Ulrich said.

Soon they were in their seats. Sissi took half-notice at Aelita. Nicolas nearly fell in love **(A/N: LOL Nicolas in love! LOL)**. "Just who does that new girl think she is? All she cares about is having boys and a weird girl around her."

"Actually, I think she looks worried." Nicholas had his head in his hand.

"Obviously, Nicholas, you don't know the first thing about girls-hmph. Acting frail and helpless will work every time. Boys love that. It's the best way to attract them," Sissi lectured Nicholas. It also perked Hervé's interest.

After everyone was calm Mr. Fumet happily announced, "We have a new student in our class. I'll let her introduce herself."

Aelita got some "stage fright". "My—uh—I—uh…" she was nervous.

Cassidy stood up. She used dramatic gestures, but not a dramatic voice. "I'll introduce her because she isn't used to introducing herself. I introduce Aelita Stones. She's Odd's cousin from Canada, and she's a little nervous at the moment." The brown-haired, tiger-striped girl then sat down.

"Hm…Well, Aelita, let me welcome you to Kadic Junior High. We all hope that you're going to like it here very much," Mr. Fumet said.

**-After Class-**

Aelita and the others got to the bench. "Thanks for covering for me." She smiled at Cassidy.

"You're welcome. The first day I got here, I ended up saying my last name and first name **(A/N: I'm not **_**that**_** nervous in real life! End A/N) **in that order. But as the months went by I got a little braver," Cassidy winked.

"Ya see," Jeremie sat next to the two girls; "everything's cool. There was no reason to worry."

"But Jeremie, did you see Aelita when she tried to introduce herself?" Cassidy asked half-concerned. "She was trying to get her name out."

"I guess not," Aelita said, smiling, "and besides, I really like history. But you've got to admit: you fight a lot here; there are wars all the time."

The three boys showed uneasy looks. Cassidy smiled a little sympathetically. "But sometimes there were reasons for the wars. The Civil War, for instance, was to free slaves and save America from being chopped right in two."

Jeremie smirked.

"The American Revolution, which was years _before_ the Civil War, was to declare America a free nation," Cassidy added. This piqued Aelita's interest.

Yumi came right up. "Hey, guys! Well how's our new earthling doing?" she lightly teased.

"Oh," the pink haired girl smiled. "I'm fine. I'm trying to adapt to so many new sensations. Like the air that you breathe here, all the colors and the sounds, but I'm fine."

Jeremie smiled deviously. "It's about time that we deactivated the supercomputer, don't you think?"

Cassidy then felt a twisting feeling in her gut. Something was about to go wrong.

"Oh, I wouldn't wait for XANA to send us an invitation," Ulrich was all for it.

"And who feels like going to Lyoko now that Aelita's here with us?" Odd smiled with that fact.

Yumi, Jeremie and Ulrich agreed. Cassidy bit back a psychic thought. Aelita was nervous.

"You'll think this is silly, but it scares me a little. Lyoko, after all, was my home. And I'm not really sure what affect destroying it might have for me," The pink haired girl was just as scared as the psychic beside her was.

Everyone, minus Cassidy and Aelita, raised a brow, showed concerned looks, or both.

"There's nothing to worry about, I'm sure," Jeremie said consolingly. Holding her hand, he added, "Come on!"

When they got to the factory, Cassidy's twisted-gut feeling got worse.

They went down to the super calculator room and the calculator (which looked like an upside-down T) came up, cylinder first, base second.

Aelita backed up. That was what the super calculator looked like.

Jeremie and Cassidy looked to her. "Are you okay, Aelita? If you want to wait a day or two…" Jeremie put a hand on her shoulder.

"No," the pink-haired girl tried to feel brave. "The sooner, the better."

Jeremie was feeling better. "Okay, I think you should have the honor."

"No," Aelita said. The others looked to her. "I—I'd rather you do it!"

Jeremie smiled. "Sure, Aelita." His words were soft.

He walked up to the power switch. Aelita sweated. "XANA, you gave us a lot of grief. But thanks to you, we met Aelita, so good bye and good riddance!"

Before Jeremie could pull down the switch, Cassidy yelled, "STOP!" and time froze. It actually froze.

Cassidy looked at herself. She did that? Was this normal? She panicked. "J-ju-just go!" she nearly sobbed. **(A/N: This time-freezing thing will happen only in this chapter)**

Time resumed. Jeremie pulled down the switch and Aelita fainted. "AELITA!" Cassidy screamed.

She grabbed her friend. Ulrich did too. "Turn the power back on," Yumi said. "Aelita's not well. Hurry up!"

Jeremie turned on the power and ran back to the others. "What's wrong with her?"

"A link from XANA to Aelita!" Cassidy said. "So if XANA dies, so does Aelita."

"Well, let's hope XANA doesn't rear his ugly head," Odd was worried.

Cassidy kicked Odd in the shin. "XANA always does boofhead."

"Oh…"

**-A few hours later-**

Cassidy took Aelita's pulse, but since she didn't have a watch, Jeremie provided his for her. **(A/N: She's using the correct fingers, unlike Jim) **

"Her pulse is getting to a ninety," she observed.

Aelita opened her eyes. "I don't know. What happened? I—"

"You fainted, Aelita. It's a little like sleeping. A really _deep_ sleep!" Jeremie explained.

"I like the way it felt," Aelita sat up a little.

"I knew that you would faint, and I—accidently stopped time." Cassidy was shy and shamefaced.

"How?" Jeremie asked.

"I just yelled stop, and time, obviously, stopped," Cassidy said.

"How did it resume?" Jeremie was a little concerned, both for his girlfriend, and for his good friend.

"I sobbed go, and it resumed!"

Turning to Aelita, Jeremie continued, "Well, Cassidy said that it was a link, or virus, between you and XANA that caused you to faint. I scanned my program, and it was true. My computer is programmed right now to find the breaker, or antivirus."

"It's getting late, Princess and Einstein; soon Aelita has to go to Yumi's!" Cassidy teased.

"How soon?" Jeremie looked to her.

"Like half-hour soon," Cassidy said. "That way, you get to spend some time with Aelita," she whispered.

Jeremie blushed.

Soon, Cassidy was going back to school, while Jeremie and Aelita walked.

"What a strange sensation," Aelita was shivering, and yet, she didn't know the feeling.

"You shivered, that's all. It's a reaction you get on account of the cold," Jeremie explained.

"I like the feeling of being a little chilly. And the sounds and the smells are a lot different at night!"

"Yeah, it's quiet and peaceful, and the plants, they breathe differently." Picking a flower from a box, Jeremie gave it to her. "Here, smell this!"

She did, stopping as she did so, and smiled. "Wow, it's wonderful to be alive." The moon seeming to smile too, Aelita added, "And it's thanks to you that I'm here!"

"Well—I uh…I didn't…eh…do it alone!" Jeremie blushed.

Aelita giggled, and then pulled Jeremie along.

As they walked side by side, Aelita spotted a photo booth but didn't know what it was.

"What's that? A scanner?"

"No. Not exactly, follow me!" Jeremie and Aelita ran inside and out popped four brilliant photos.

They laughed at three of them.

The two got to Yumi's house. "Well, your castle awaits you, Princess!"

"Thanks for walking me back," Aelita said. "In spite of the virus, I still had the most wonderful night of my life. Good night." She gave Jeremie a kiss.

She ran up the stairs and said, "See you tomorrow." And she closed the door.

Jeremie sighed, smiling. Then he got all excited, "Aelita's—WOW!" Then he walked back to Kadic, whistling.

**-The next day-**

"So, do you have any idea on how to get rid of this miserable virus," Ulrich asked, sitting on the step.

Odd was leaning against the pillar. Cassidy was sitting on the ground, flashing again.

"No, not yet. I hope the calculations my computer made will help me!" Jeremie was a tad edgy.

"Here come the girls," Odd looked.

Yumi and Aelita ran up. "Well, how was your first night on Earth?" Ulrich asked.

Aelita stretched. "Sleeping is really wonderful."

"She would have slept _all day_ if I hadn't shaken her a little!" The usually black-clad girl smiled.

Everyone laughed.

"Stick with me, Aelita, and you'll see, sleeping in class isn't so bad either," Odd said.

Cassidy felt a little curious. "Odd, may I check your leg?"

"What, so you can hit it with a fist?"

"No, just so I could see how you are healing!" Cassidy retorted.

Lifting the pant leg, the bruise was there, but it was diminishing a little.

"Did you put ice on it?" Cassidy asked, albeit curious.

"Yeah!"

"Good!"

**-Math class-**

"Who can give us the definition of a pair of prime numbers," Mr. Yeltzy asked. "Sissi?"

"Well, mm, well…uh…a pair of prime numbers is…uh…two numbers that are about the same!" Sissi said. She obviously didn't pay attention.

Everyone got a good laugh out of this.

"Thank you, Sissi. Well, can one of you give us a less harebrained answer? Aelita."

"A pair of prime numbers occurs when their highest common denominator is one!" Aelita was a little more confident.

"Very good," Mr. Yeltzy said. "Although…"

"In a principle rating, it's equivalent to the fact that their direct sun is equal to one but of course with a non-principle factorial rate, that is not the case!"

Everyone was either amazed or confused at what Aelita had said. Aelita's friends were not.

The teacher dragged the chalk down in a straight line (|).

"That is, according to the theory of Bijou you see!" Aelita half defended.

Mr. Yeltzy raised an eyebrow then heard a scream.

Some of the students got up. Cassidy turned to Jeremie. "Kankrelats are on Earth."

"How could he have managed that?" Jeremie said.

"Who cares," Odd yelled at him. "The problem is: how do you suggest getting rid of them?"

"Odd, we always fought them when we all go you-know-where and here it's a little different, but not that different." Cassidy crossed her arms.

"You four go to Lyoko and deactivate the tower. Yumi and I will stay here and defend the home front!" Ulrich said, dialing his phone.

"Oh, no…that's crazy, Cassidy and Ulrich!" Aelita tried to reason.

"You know very well that if there's a victim, then going back in time won't bring them back to life!" Ulrich said, and then Yumi got on the phone. "Yumi…yeah, we already know…we've gotta find weapons. Okay, I'll meet you outside of the math class." He hung up.

"Well, let's go, guys," Jeremie said.

Odd, Cassidy, Aelita, and Jeremie walked out of the classroom to find another boy screaming and running across the hall.

They looked to their immediate right and saw a Kankrelat. It walked on its claw-like legs then turned its head towards them, its laser on its mouth menacing.

Ulrich took to the front. "I'll handle him. Get GOING!"

Aelita, Odd, Cassidy, and Jeremie ran out of harms way.

"Let's see how good you are," Ulrich challenged. Then he jumped over the monster as it fired.

He ran to the staircase, but then a burst of pain got to him. He cried out then spider-legged his way from his pursuer.

**-With Jeremie, Cassidy, Aelita, and Odd-**

"Just a few more seconds and the coast'll be clear," Odd said.

"Just like Operation: THEO!" Cassidy marveled.

Operation: THEO was a plan to prevent Hervé and Nicholas from expelling a student. Odd, Ulrich, and Cassidy dressed Kiwi in a pillow sheet, got the little gray dog howling; then in Kiwi ran, scaring the bejeebers out of the two boys.

They had to evade Jim though that time.

Odd gave the signal and Aelita, Jeremie, and Cassidy followed the leader, Cassidy a little nervously though.

**-Back to Ulrich-**

The Kankrelat was nearing him. Ulrich nearly was running out of steam.

It aimed. Ulrich feared the worst. Then out of nowhere a javelin was headed in his direction. He ducked, avoiding possible injury and the Kankrelat was destroyed.

Ulrich looked to find two black combat boots then looked up to find Yumi.

"What would you do without me?" she panted.

Ulrich showed a weak smile—mainly because of the pain.

Yumi looked behind him. Then she pulled on his arm. "Oh, hurry up!"

Ulrich looked back, and yelped as Yumi pulled him out of the math class.

The Kankrelats were everywhere. Yumi and Ulrich went to the garden shed and got a chainsaw and an ax.

Jeremie, Odd, Aelita, and Cassidy made it to the factory. "It looks like Swiss Cheese!" Cassidy cracked.

Picking up a nail gun and handing it to Odd, she smiled. "There's a Kankrelat in the scanner room."

They got there and, what do ya know, there was a lone Kankrelat skittering in the middle of the room. Odd shot and won.

"Jeremie, you have to transfer me to Lyoko," Aelita said.

"What? Have you forgotten XANA's virus, Aelita," Jeremie was worried. "What if XANA stops you from deactivating the tower, or returning to Earth?"

"That's a risk we've got to take; the priority is to stop XANA!" Aelita said. "You know as well as I do. We have no choice, Jeremie. Think of all the other monsters XANA could materialize."

Aelita's logic bit Jeremie in the heart.

"Okay, get into the scanner; I'll send you to Lyoko!" Jeremie sounded downhearted.

Aelita, Cassidy and, after the last Kankrelat was destroyed, Odd got into the scanners and soon they were on Lyoko's Ice Region. "It's strange being virtualized!"

"I know the feeling, and I know you miss Earth, but, I secretly wrote a little code so that if a return in time occurs, you will be with us, _on Earth_! The return this time won't go back a total of two days. It will go back just _one_ day!" Cassidy smiled.

"_WHAT?" _Jeremie's yell was filled in amazement. _"HOW DID YOU DO THAT?"_

"It was simple really," Cassidy said slyly. "You typed it. One of the notes you had had my code on it. Not my genetic computer code, but you get my meaning right?"

"_Yeah."_

"You approve?"

"_Yes!"_

Soon they got to the tower and deactivated it before it got worse.

**-Returning to the past now (This time the morning of the link discovery)-**

"It's amazing what you did, Cassidy," Jeremie was prideful.

"'Twas nothing!" Cassidy was modest.

"Nothing?" Ulrich asked.

"It was the least I could do!" Cassidy blushed.

Aelita and Yumi ran up. "Cassidy, you are incredible!" Yumi hugged her dangerous-psychic friend.

"It was nothing, really!" Cassidy blushed deeper.

The bell rang and the others went to class as usual.


	9. The New Order is Aelita's staying here!

**From this day forth, I will only own Cassidy and the plot. Code Lyoko shan't be mine unless I get the legalities straight.**

**-Three days later-**

It seemed to be peaceful in the Desert Region. Its orange plateaus felt calm…

Then two boys on two vehicles arrived. One of them—a spiked-up ninja—whooped with joy on a vehicle that was almost like a skateboard without wheels. The other—a sword-wielding samurai—was in the lead on a vehicle that looked like a one-wheeled motorcycle.

Odd—the ninja—was as happy as if he won a lifetime supply of croissants. "You really did a great job, Jeremie. XANA better behave himself now that we've got these things."

Jeremie, who wasn't on Lyoko, expressed his concern.

Ulrich—the samurai—was determined.

As they went in between a sort of canyon, and Odd coming into the lead, another face was watching. She was a giant purple cat, but she loved the thrill of virtual adrenalin in her virtual veins.

She lay herself down into her vehicle—a sort of go-kart that allows you to lie down—and revved up her engine. She got off the canyon-thing and into the lead.

Ulrich and Odd raised virtual brows.

The girl looked back. "Hey, boys!" she smiled.

"Cassidy, why—?" Ulrich half-choked.

"What? You think I'm just going to wait until Odd scrapes himself?" Cassidy smiled.

She pressed a button and ended up on the next plateau.

"And the girl gets in after a late entry!" She jumped out of her vehicle.

A geisha came up with their friend—Aelita. "Good job, Cassidy!" Yumi smiled.

"Thanks, oh, hold on," Cassidy pulled her tube from her tail. _Turn into a gun._

It did, and she shot at a rock formation the top fell to the side.

"Cassidy, can I ask you something?" Yumi asked.

"Go for it. You don't have to ask me to ask me! Just do it."

"Okay, how did you get so good in shooting?"

"My dad taught me. At the tender age of eleven," Cassidy smiled.

"That's incredible!" Aelita said.

"It's part of me," Cassidy looked and saw Odd and Ulrich coming.

As soon as they were all together, Cassidy's eyes whitened. "A tarantula is coming!"

As soon as a laser arrow fired, Cassidy got back, turned her tube into an Invisibility Cloak, slipped it on, and hid.

"Cassidy, where are you?" Odd asked.

Cassidy stayed silent. It was a plan she had. She just needed to initiate it.

"Hey, what's that?" Yumi asked.

"Cassidy said that it was some sorta spider," Ulrich said. "It looks like trouble. Big Time!"

"I've never seen a monster like that one before. XANA must have just created it," Aelita said.

"In any case, it says here that it has more life points than the others," Jeremie said.

A metallic leg stomped onto the ground. Everyone, minus Cassidy, turned around and gasped.

It half-looked like a gorilla/spider combo. It readied its legs.

"Jeremie, how about reprogramming our vehicles?" Yumi asked.

"I'm on it already," Jeremie was proud, "but it's going to take time."

Aelita ran.

"On my signal," Ulrich commanded.

"I'll go first," Yumi came in.

"And I'm gonna keep it busy," Odd said.

Ulrich pulled out his sword. "NOW!"

The tarantula fired. But Ulrich blocked some of the fire with his own sword.

Odd catapulted himself in front of the tarantula, arm poised to fire arrows. Meanwhile, Yumi cartwheeled to the other side of the tarantula while the distraction went into action.

Odd fired at the grotesque monster, occasionally yelled out a little bit of "Take this!" or "How about that?"

The monster, with its long, thin attack-resistant legs, just parried away the arrows. Odd continued anyway.

"Guys, be careful. I have no information on its attacks or abilities!" Jeremy budded in, reminding his friends of the dilemma.

"Hai-yah!" Yumi threw her fans, with enough force to move the continents, at the tarantula.

Its blind face, all except for the blatant X.A.N.A. symbol, showed no sign of caring. It simply ducked and the fans sailed over its outstretched body.

In the meantime, Odd had put most of his focus on berating Jeremy on his negative thinking and didn't seem to realize the threat looming over him. Yumi's fans had been thrown so hard that they showed no sign of slowing down and returning to their owner. They sliced through the air and, unfortunately, through the unaware bystander. Odd was devirtualized on impact.

Upon this Ulrich snapped into action, deciding that waiting behind to protect Aelita is now a useless idea. "Triplicate!" He yelled while two copies sprung from his body; they ran towards the tarantula to slice it to pieces.

Unfortunately, even though it didn't look like it, XANA's newest creation had a mind and a very smart one at that. It knew just what to do. With a mechanical roar that seemed just as menacing and mocking as laughter, it unloaded a vast array of lasers at the defenseless Yumi. It had done so just in time; the young geisha had just started to attempt to move a rock with her telekinesis. She was devirtualized before the boulder could reach its target.

Cassidy had barely dodged the boulder. Oh, the price of being invisible. Yumi had unfortunately not realized that she was there. However, thankfully, she had a plan. She knew it would work; it just had to if Aelita was going to get to the tower. She decided to creep towards the monster as soon as she saw Ulrich super sprinting across the sector. She paused. Make that three Ulrichs.

Ulrich was steaming by the time he stopped with his clones. He silently planned his attack, a big frown on his face.

"Ulrich, watch out. The lasers take away 20 life-points a hit." Jeremy warned.

"Yeah, thanks Einstein."

The creature wasted no time in shooting at him. By the time he got his mind together one of the clones were already gone. He lunged at it, his clone closely following pursuit. The tarantula put up both arms, ultimately stopping the blade in mid-strike. Ulrich pushed with all his might, but his new enemy was far too strong. It growled that mechanical growl and got in his face. He reluctantly jumped away.

He was too slow for the tarantula because it had already taken the opportunity to shoot at the hero. It blasted away at Ulrich before he could even regain his footing. "Fast," he managed to get out before his entire frame faded away.

It was at that moment that the creature roared in victory, looking over at the startled and defenseless pink-haired guardian a distance off. It started to clunk towards her, but it stopped.

Just then, Cassidy appeared. Her invisibility cloak had now formed into a katana similar to Ulrich's sword. With a smirk, she drove it into the tarantula's eye. Just to make sure she tugged it out and with a grunt stabbed at the eye again.

The monster shrieked and cried as it combusted. XANA's greatest creation to date had been defeated. Aelita was now safe. Cassidy smiled and gave Aelita a thumbs-up, her katana turning back into a tube. **(A/N: Thanks to a reliable user, this action piece is dedicated to linkmasta13)**

** -Later, in the factory-**

"If XANA's going to start programming new monsters, it means our troubles, guys, have only just begun," Jeremie was filled with worry.

"Anyway, Einstein, one thing's for sure: You're gonna have to program our vehicles faster. Otherwise we don't stand a chance against, what Cassidy called, Tarantulas!"

"Your aunt what?" Yumi asked.

"Tarantulas; the new monsters. I like to give my enemies a name," Odd said, then ducked a swing from Cassidy. "What was that for?"

"I said tarantula _first_ on _Lyoko_!" she seethed.

"Okay, okay," Odd said. "Don't get your sports bra into a—"

"ODD!" Cassidy screeched. "You just pricked my nerves boy."

"Uh-oh!" Odd was running up the ladder and Cassidy was right on his heels. **(A/N: My OC (Not me the author) is on her girl problems right now, and right now, she's mood swinging and Odd's not making matters better)**

"What worries me is our friend XANA has obviously found a way to increase his power," Jeremie went on concerned.

"You think he's still evolving?" Ulrich asked.

"Maybe so," Jeremie said. "In any case, from now on, we have to be ready for anything and everything!"

"_That doesn't even make sense, Jeremie!"_ Cassidy screeched. There was an "ouch" from Odd then a given "UNCLE, UNCLE!" from the source.

"Maybe I better be getting back to Lyoko. If XANA activates a tower, I'd better be there," Aelita said. In a day, Aelita went shopping for new clothes with Cassidy and Yumi. They wanted her to choose, but didn't know what to choose. Therefore, she had bought a pink hooded Jumper, maroon overalls, and dark pink boots.

Aelita didn't mind, and neither did the other two girls.

Cassidy climbed down the ladder with an exhausted Odd in a firefighter hold. "What's the lesson _here_, Odd?"

"Never prick Cassidy's nerves while she's having girl problems?" Odd whimpered.

"Yes," Cassidy's words softened then put Odd down.

"Uh—should we tell her?" Jeremie asked, perking Aelita's interest.

"Well, of course we should tell her!" Yumi smiled.

"It's not like we are keeping this a secret!" Cassidy lightly Gibbs-smacked him.

"Keeping what a secret?" Aelita wondered. "Would someone please tell me what's going on?"

Cassidy smiled.

"Over the past three days, I spent all my time developing the vehicles and a breaker/antivirus to free you from XANA! And I've also perfected a whole new program for detecting activated towers," Jeremie said.

Odd picked himself up and said, "A super-scanner, much more accurate than the old one."

"With instant detection," Jeremie continued. "Meaning, you don't have to stay on Lyoko all the time!" He loved hearing the words. Aelita's _staying_ on Earth unless XANA attacks.

"So I'm going to live," Aelita marveled and smiled.

"Here with us," Ulrich said. "We've already enrolled you as a boarder at the school!"

"AND, you will ROOM with me!" Cassidy smiled.

The news was so much for Aelita to take. Yumi and Cassidy put arms around the third female's shoulders.

"Everything's all set up; we wanted to surprise you!" Yumi said.

Aelita stood, stunned, then she spoke. "This is so wonderful!" She smiled again. "I can't believe it."

"Let's go to my—well, you're my roommate now—_our_ room. I spent last week getting our room ready," Cassidy smiled.

**-A few minutes later-**

Jim opened the door. "And this is your roommate's room. You'll like it here Miss—uh—"

"Stones," Aelita said proudly, briefcase in hand. "Aelita Stones. Like the rock group. I'm Odd's cousin from Canada."

"Ah…So, Aelita, breakfast starts at 7:00 am and dinner's at 7:00 pm. It's against the rules to be in your room between 8:00 am and 4:30 pm. You can ask your friends, Della Robbia, Stern, and Belpois, and your roommate, McGuire, to fill you in on the rest of the rules…_that is _if_ they can _remember _them."_ Jim then left the room.

Cassidy, Odd, Ulrich, and Jeremie smiled. "YEAH!" Jeremie yelled.

**-Get excited-**

"I don't want to hear another word about the school newspaper. This excursion is for eighth and ninth graders only. Is that clear?" Mrs. Hertz snapped.

Tamiya shut off her camera. This was the worst put-down. "Oh…"

Milly walked off with a boom mike hanging over her mouth. "Oh, rats."

Kiwi squirmed in Odd's backpack. _"Kiwi_, stop wiggling around. Five more minutes and you can run around all you want to." Odd was talking to the bag.

"Hey, is everything okay, ladies. Are you all settled in, Aelita," Jeremie asked.

"Yes, I am, and I love my room and roommate," Aelita then turned her attention to another thing. "Hey, what is this field trip everybody's talking about?"

"We're going to make a biodiversity scrapbook," Jeremie said.

"Drawing plants and flowers," Cassidy said. "I have to go get to my partner. He's the new guy."

**(A/N: *Singsong* William!)**

"You and I have been paired up to work together," Jeremie said to Aelita.

"Great," Aelita said.

"Anyone seen Ulrich?" Odd asked.

"He's under the arches," Aelita said. "I think he's waiting for Yumi."

**-With Ulrich-**

"Okay, Yumi…there's something I have to tell you," Ulrich said. "No. That doesn't sound right. Yumi, there's something serious you and I have to talk about. No—she'll freak out if I say that."

Yumi walked up then. Ulrich was trying his hardest.

"Yumi, you and I have to—" Ulrich saw Yumi. "Oh, Yumi! I—I have something to tell you!"

"I do to," Yumi said. "There's a new kid named William, and Cassidy has a crush on him!"

"Really?" Ulrich said.

"She's paired up with him for this trip," Yumi put an arm around Ulrich.

"Wow, I hope she doesn't act like Sissi around him," Ulrich smiled. "I love it as I love—" Ulrich stopped himself just in time. "So…you have a partner?"

"I chose you!" She said.

Odd came running up. "Hey, what are you lovebirds doing? Everyone's leaving. We have to be back by 6:00."

"Okay, Odd," Ulrich said. He was smiling. "Who is your partner?"

"Wouldn't you believe it? Everyone else has landed a partner but me! But I landed myself lucky. Mrs. Hertz said that I could be with you two." Odd smiled deviously.

"Great," Ulrich's smile faltered, but then came back.

**-Outside the Forest-**

"Did you know that trees grow new branches from one year to the next according to an exponential ratio of 1.6?" Jeremie asked.

"1.61_8,_ to be exact. It's the Golden Ratio!" Aelita stated proudly. "Say, do you think Nature obeys nonlinear equation systems?"

Sissi and her cronies followed behind them. "Can you believe those two? What do they think they are anyway? Mr. and Mrs. Einstein." Sissi was outraged inside.

"Uh…who?" Nicolas asked. But the black-haired girl moved in a different direction.

"Hey, Sissi," Hervé said. "Where are you going? The woods are this way!"

"Yes, but the stores are that way," Sissi proclaimed.

"But, we're supposed to draw plants," Hervé said.

"There's a florist in the shopping center," She turned to look back.

Nicolas and Hervé followed.

**-Jeremie and Aelita-**

"Nah, there aren't any monsters in these woods. That only happens in fairy tales or in silly horror pictures, the kind that Odd and Cassidy like," Jeremie said.

Ring

"Hello," Jeremie said.

"I only like Van Helsing, Jeremie; I don't like any other horror films, okay?" Cassidy's voice came.

"Okay," Jeremie said.

They both hung up.

"You don't like horror films," Aelita said, sounding bored.

"I find it inaccurate, scientifically speaking. Anyway, I don't have time to go to the movies. I've got my work cut out for me with XANA," Jeremie felt at his bag then realized. "Huh? Oh, no I don't believe it! I left my laptop in my room! What if XANA attacks?"

"Well, run back and get it. I'll just keep working by myself. Anyway with the drawings we've already done, I'm sure we'll get the highest grade," Aelita smiled.

"Yeah, be right back." Jeremie ran back.

"Bye," Aelita waved.

**-Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd-**

The three were getting their photos and drawings done on the nose. They smiled. They'll get a great grade.

And Kiwi was playing with the butterflies.

**-Cassidy and William-**

"I wouldn't really call myself a rebel. I'm just a little…rebellious," William said.

"But you did get kicked out for posting love letters all over your old school," Cassidy lifted a pencil.

"You know about my love addiction?" William asked.

"Actually, I was…just paying attention," Cassidy said.

"You have a boyfriend?" That struck Cassidy hard in the heart.

"To tell you the truth, no. My first crush turned out a few years later a male prostitute and my second crush turned out to already have a girlfriend," Cassidy was downhearted.

"Sorry to hear that," William blinked.

"Do you want to be?" Cassidy cheered up three notches.

"Yeah," William smiled.

Cassidy cheered up. "Thanks."

**-Aelita-**

Aelita walked around the crossway when she heard a fluttering in the distance. She gasped, feeling fearful. A rustling sound caught her attention. "Monsters only exist in fairy tales… Monsters only exist in fairy tales…," she whispered as she walked along.

Then a distant howl, similar to a wolf howl, made her run. She burst through the underbrush and then she stopped. Dropping her sketchbook, she grabbed her head, seeing visions of a great orange-eyed dark gray wolf before her eyes.

Regaining her senses, the pink-haired girl ran. And she kept on running.

**-Lyoko's Ice Sector-**

A tower turned red. And its guests were tarantulas only.

**-Jeremie-**

The boy got to his room and put down his bag. The laptop beeped, catching Jeremie's attention. "Just what I was afraid of. XANA's attacking!"

A small tower shown on his computer.

**-Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich-**

The three were resting their fingers. They were drawing and taking pictures for half an hour. "Wow!" Yumi smiled. "We'll get some good grades here, huh, guys."

Odd and Ulrich nodded, satisfied. "We'll have it in the bag!" Odd smiled, petting Kiwi.

Ulrich's phone rang. "Jeremie?"

Jeremie's voice came in from the other line. "I'm at school. XANA's attacking. I'll head for the factory, but you guys have to pick up Aelita on the way."

"No problem," Ulrich nodded. "We'll go and get her."

Just then, Cassidy swooped in from the right. "I have a boyfriend! And XANA is going to love us cracking our enemies' heads!"

"Or not!" Yumi cracked.

Cassidy and Yumi laughed.

"Now, let's get Aelita, before we get lost ourselves," Cassidy smiled.

"Okay!"

"I left her on the red trail," Jeremie said. "Is Yumi with you?"

"Yeah," Ulrich smiled.

**-Aelita-**

Aelita panted. Running made her tired. Finally catching her breath, she turned around to find an old house.

When she got to the gates, she stood on her tiptoes to look over.

There was a sign on the gates. "The Hermitage," she read.

Aelita grabbed her head again. The Hermitage's images were flickering from old to new and back again.

Walking to the front steps, Aelita's curiosity grew more and more. Did someone live in this house? Was there some security? She had many other questions.

"Is—is anybody home?" Aelita asked.

A camera followed her as she walked inside. Little did she know was that XANA was plotting a trap.

**-Odd, Yumi, Ulrich, Cassidy, and Kiwi-**

"Are you sure this is the place?" Odd asked.

Kiwi circled Aelita's sketchbook, catching her scent.

"That's what Jeremie told me," Ulrich said.

Cassidy looked down at the little gray dog. "Follow the scent, Kiwi."

Kiwi barked in response. The brown-haired girl smiled. The dog sniffed and walked.

The four humans followed the small gray dog. "Go Kiwi!" Cassidy whispered.

"He may be a little dumb, but he does have a good nose," Odd told Yumi and Ulrich.

They followed.

**-Aelita-**

Opening the door and walking inside, Aelita was getting more curious. She felt at a table and dust kicked up as she passed. XANA's ghost followed from the study and into the living room where Aelita sat to rest her legs awhile.

Standing up, Aelita felt a little dizzy. She caught herself on the fireplace. Another vision hit. A gray-haired man was playing piano. The house looked new _Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star_ was the song.

The pink-haired girl watched with fear and curiosity as the man stopped and looked at her with heavy round glasses. The lenses flashed white.

Aelita woke up looked behind her then screamed as XANA's ghost engulfed her.

**-Lab, then Hermitage-**

"Don't tell me you haven't found her yet! What have you guys been doing? She may be in big danger!" Jeremie was getting increasingly scared and upset.

"Chill, Jeremie, okay! We're doing everything we can," Odd said. "Who knows? Maybe Aelita just went back to school. Kiwi led us to an old house in the woods. We're going to take a look inside. We're gonna call you back if we got any news."

"I think Aelita's inside," Cassidy sparked a flash, but it was just a spark.

"What are you the human tracker?" Odd asked.

"I can feel a presence," said Cassidy.

"Lead the way," Yumi said.

Cassidy walked, feeling Aelita's presence getting stronger. The others followed. She walked until she spotted a pink-haired girl. "Aelita." She helped Aelita up single handedly.

Aelita looked at Cassidy, "Cassidy, it's a trap! XANA…he's going to…"

The door nearly swiped shut until Odd put a foot on it. "Get Aelita OUT!" He sounded strangled.

Aelita got out. Cassidy was next…until…

SLAM!

Cassidy got shut in.

"You'll be cooked alive if we don't get you out of there!" Odd shouted.

Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, and Aelita tried on the side Cassidy wasn't. And Cassidy tried where she was. None prevailed.

"Just get to Lyoko!" Cassidy said. "There's just nothing for me to do right now!"

Odd and Aelita nearly shared shocked looks.

"Just GO!" Cassidy commanded. "I know I wanted to do this mission, but this is a mission that I have to stay behind on."

With just a hint of luck, Ulrich, Odd, Yumi, and Aelita got out of the Hermitage. Kiwi happened to greet them.

"Kiwi!" Odd smiled.

Aelita then had another vision. It was of her and the man. They were going in a passage near the stairs. And she saw the passage itself.

Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi were about to go to the sewer the old-fashioned way when… "Odd, Yumi, Ulrich, there's a passage over there. I think it leads to the sewers," Aelita said.

"This is no time for jokes Aelita!" Odd said.

"I'm not joking, Odd. I'm sure!" Aelita was adamant.

Everyone followed Aelita into the sewers and Odd was amazed, "Wow! Incredible! How did you know about this?"

**-Back with Cassidy-**

The heat was stifling, but Cassidy was tough. She went through heat before.

Feeling around her pockets, she found her pocketknife pack. She also found a non-whittled stick. And so, she flipped out the knife and whittled, whistling _If I Had Words._

**-Back with Odd, Ulrich, Aelita, Yumi, and Kiwi-**

They compiled into the elevator and took it to the lab, where Jeremie was waiting. Aelita smiled.

Jeremie looked. "Aelita, I was really worried."

"No time to lose, Einstein; otherwise Cassidy'll wind up as dim sum." Odd waved Jeremie off.

"Okay, head for the scanners; I'll start the process," Jeremie said.

Soon, Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita were all on Lyoko.

The vehicles materialized. "Aelita and Yumi, the OverWing's for you!"

Everyone got to a little ways to the tower. There were tarantulas. "I miss Cassidy!" Odd said. "She would have warned us of this before Jeremie could."

**-Cassidy-**

Stick whittled, she sheathed the knife and put it away. "This could have been worse," she muttered, bored.

The heat had increased. Cassidy sat down. "Aelita will deactivate the tower soon. I will be saved." She yawned.

**-Lyoko-**

Yumi and Aelita took out one tarantula on their own—Aelita providing the distraction while Yumi threw her fan.

Odd and Ulrich was trying to take care of the tarantula at hand. It was a tough case.

**-Cassidy-**

Cassidy yawned. The heat was getting to her now very much.

**-Lyoko-**

As soon as the tarantula was out of the way, Aelita was free to enter the tower.

She rose onto another platform. An interface popped up. She then walked confidently to the interface and put her hand on it. It showed her name.

Then CODE came up.

She typed in the code.

"Tower deactivated!"

**-Cassidy-**

Cassidy had succumbed to the heat and passed out.

**-Return to the Past, Now-**

Cassidy was in the best of moods. "William agreed to go out with me."

"And you still remember what happened in the sweat pen?" Odd said.

"It's okay, Odd," Cassidy waved him off, "I whittled a stick there."

"And we all got good grades!" Jeremie smiled. "I went to check out that house the Hermitage. Nothing to report. It's gone back to being a normal house. Abandoned but normal."

"What about the visions?" Cassidy said.

"A new mystery to solve for us!" Yumi agreed.

"And," Cassidy smiled. "Jeremie, the honors."

Jeremie handed Aelita a pink wrapper-covered box.

"Jeremie thought pink would suit you!" Cassidy said.

It turned out to be a pink cell phone.

"I love it!" Aelita smiled.


	10. The Territory's Uncharted

**Code Lyoko © Moonscoop/Toowam/Antefilms/Taffy**

**Cassidy McGuire © Me. NO STEALING unless I give permission. Right now, the answer is NO!**

At five o'clock in the morning, Cassidy was up with her things for the shower.

"Come on," Cassidy whispered to Aelita, her red Amigos shirt she was wearing was wrinkled.

Aelita let out a scream and woke up.

"You okay?" Cassidy asked her eyes filled with sympathy.

The pink-haired girl recited her dream. A pack of wolves was chasing an elf through a forest. Soon the elf found shelter in the tree and the alpha wolf found him.

Aelita shook in fear, and Cassidy hugged her. "It's okay," Cassidy said. "I'm here."

Soon the shaking stopped and Cassidy recited her plan. "OK, this is a good one, so listen close…ok at seven, Sissi, the most untrustworthy girl in this school, will hog the shower. Long line forms and I don't think _we_—" She pointed to her friend and then back to her—"would like to wait _all day_ in night-before sweat. So, we go in the shower at this time—" she checked her clock: it was five-thirty—"And we get our shower in first. That way, we don't end up waiting. And Sissi will trick you into the boys' bathroom if we don't initiate this plan."

"Okay," Aelita was confused, but gathered her materials.

Soon both girls were showered and refreshed before Sissi could wake up.

**-Let's go to Jeremie's room, shall we?-**

Jeremie had done research on the Hermitage. Something caught his eye and he sent it to the printer. "Now, let's see." Right away, the document came out. "WOW! Unbelievable!"

"Come on, Jeremie," Ulrich opened his door. "Let's get a move on! Otherwise there won't be any hot water left!" Ulrich wasn't going to let the cold water be his enemy this morning. Heck, any morning.** (A/N: As do I.)** He hated freezing cold water. It was like receiving an electric shock from XANA.

"Hey, remember the Hermitage?" Jeremie asked.

"You mean the house where Aelita had those visions? Bad memory, Jeremie!" Ulrich said.

"Right," Jeremie turned to his computer screen. "Well, I wanted to check it out a little closer, and I found out something a_mazing_!"

"What would really be a_mazing_ is that there's still some eggs left when we get down to breakfast," Odd said. He was hungry…scratch that…he was hungry all the time.

"Odd, you're a real walking stomach, you know that?" Jeremie typed a bit on the computer.

"And you're a walking _brain_," Odd smiled. "You see, we compliment each other."

Cassidy and Aelita walked up, both clad in their day-clothes. "And what are _we?_" Cassidy raised a brow.

"Cassidy, you're the nervous system," Odd said.

"I can't help it if I'm jittery sometimes!" Cassidy said.

"Aelita, you are the heart because you are sensitive and kind," Odd smiled.

Aelita smiled.

"What are Ulrich and Yumi?" Cassidy said.

"Ulrich and Yumi are the muscle," Odd helped.

"Okay," Cassidy said.

Soon everyone was showered, but Cassidy gave a text to Sissi, masking her number.

Later, it turned out that Sissi got to the boys' room and almost showered there.

Cassidy giggled like a maniac. She loved this.

Then Hervé and Nicholas showed Sissi out.

Cassidy laughed, hysterically shrieking right out loud every three seconds.

"Cassidy, what did you just do," Jeremie looked to Cassidy, who was laughing with tears.

"_Pranked_ Sissi!" She laughed.

"What was the prank?" Jeremie asked.

"I—texted her—into—going—into—the boy's—bathroom!" She chortled in between words.

Odd and Ulrich laughed. "Good one, Cassidy. This is one we'll need to tell Yumi about!" Odd smiled wider. "Sissi's such a brat." Then turning to Ulrich, Odd added, "And to think she has a crush on you."

Ulrich scowled. "Cool it, huh; I don't even like her and she can't even get _that_ drilled into her tiny brain."

"Yeah!" Cassidy recovered.

"I did a little research to find out who that old house belonged to and I came across a restricted access site. It took me most of the night to hack into it but it was worth it. I found a deed signed by a Mr. Franz Hopper. Seems that he's the owner," Jeremie smiled.

"And you think it has something to do with Lyoko?" Ulrich asked.

"Ulrich," Odd came in, "there's a secret underground passage into the sewers from his yard, remember? So the guy must've had something to do with the supercomputer!"

Cassidy was confused on the "secret underground passage into the sewers from his yard" part, then a spark-flash occurred and she understood.

Jeremie smiled. "Exactly! So I did a search on Franz Hopper and guess what?"

"He was a former science teacher here?" Cassidy's eyes spark-flashed again.

"You read my mind," Jeremie said.

**-Later, outside-**

"So you think the owner of the Hermitage and the science teacher are the same person," Yumi asked, her hair flowing in the slight breeze.

Ulrich, whose hair was dry, half-shrugged, and frowned. "Well, let's face it, huh. Finding two guys called Franz Hopper in the radius of less than half a mile would sure be a real coincidence."

"Anyway," Jeremie continued, "there's only one way to be sure. After history class, we have a study period in the library. What do you say we do a little research in the Kadic Academy Archives."

Jeremie smiled.

"Good idea," Odd said.

"I'll go with you," Aelita smiled.

"I don't think it's a good idea," Jeremie said.

"What?" Cassidy asked, creasing a brow. "She didn't do anything wrong this morning."

"Alright," said Jeremie.

"Ulrich may want to go, too," Cassidy said.

"Okay," Jeremie walked to class. "See you later! We'll meet you in the cafeteria."

Yumi, Cassidy, and Aelita stayed behind. Yumi looked over to Aelita, concern crossing her path. "Are you alright, Aelita?"

"I—I can't get used to living here," Aelita sounded solemn. Yumi and Cassidy shared shocked looks.

Aelita continued. "I had another nightmare last night, the same one."

Cassidy showed her sympathy. "Would you like another hug?"

The pink-haired girl nodded as Cassidy pulled her in for a hug.

After, Yumi said, "You haven't even been here for a week yet. You'll see. You'll feel better in no time."

Aelita smiled.

**-After classes-**

Jeremie, Odd, and Ulrich dashed over to the office. Aelita decided to stay with Cassidy in the library.

Jeremie ran over to the Archives and slipped in.

**-Library-**

Sissi stormed up to Cassidy, anger rushing in her veins. "So you think you can get away with this?"

Cassidy looked up from her _Maximum Ride_ book, asked coolly, and innocently, "Get away with what?"

"With _this_," Sissi flaunted her cell phone. She showed Cassidy's text and this time the number was unmasked, clear as day. "You tricked me!"

"You were about to trick your _Ulrich Sweetheart_ with a letter once," Cassidy's tone turned steely with a hint of humor. "Luckily I _burned _it. He's never going to learn that you were about to trick him. Consider it karma. You trick, or attempt to trick, my friends or me, and then I get you back."

Sissi was not going to let Cassidy go back to battles with Flyboys and other mutants in her book. "Now, see here, you—"

Cassidy gave her a look, and Sissi backed off.

**-Back with Jeremie, Odd and Ulrich-**

Jeremie found the shelving unit. "E, F, G, H—H for Hopper!" he muttered to himself. He occasionally did that from time to time. It never really bothered his friends. Therefore, it was okay that Jeremie talked to himself.

Mrs. Weber was about to walk in when Odd and Ulrich caught her eye. They were smiling innocently. "Shouldn't you be in class? Well, children." She talked in a slight British tone.

"We're looking for uh—a teacher!" Ulrich was acting innocently. So was Odd.

"Oh, really? Which one?" Mrs. Weber asked.

"Mrs. Mayer," Ulrich said.

Odd had another one, and said at the same time as Ulrich, "Mr. Chardin!"

They looked at each other, and laughed nervously. They had obviously confused the Administrator.

Jeremie, however, was looking for Franz Hopper. "Hopper, Hopper," he fingered through the file folders and found the one labeled Hopper, F. Opening it up, he found a contract signed by the same person.

Rummaging in his pocket, he found the deed. Jeremie compared the signatures, and found they were indeed an exact match.

"Bingo," he said.

He went out to where Ulrich and Odd were. "Uh…come to think of it, at this time, if you can't find your teachers, it probably means they're in class."

Exiting the doorway, Jeremy walked by Mrs. Weber. "It's okay, guys, I've found Mrs. Hertz. Ma'am," He said.

The two other boys followed their blond-haired friend.

**-Lunchtime-**

Aelita, Yumi, and Cassidy grabbed their trays. Aelita didn't know what to get. She was new to this and her hunger was next on the list.

Cassidy looked at Aelita, eyes full of sympathy.

A student yelled, "Hey, what—"

Cassidy turned to the boy. "I'm just as hungry as you are, but you don't hear _me_ complain! Aelita's new to this. She deserves to take her time. And if you have even _one shred_ of patience, I suggest you stay off her back!" Her words were cold to the boy, but warm to Aelita. She turned to Aelita. "Here," her words were soft. "Yumi and I'll help."

Soon Aelita had a meal fit for a queen. So did Yumi and Cassidy.

**-Let's hang with the boys-**

"Boy, that was a close one," Odd said.

"Well," Ulrich said.

"No doubt about it," Jeremie came in. "I compared the teacher signature with the one on the property deed I found on the internet. They're the same."

That confirmed one truth. The former science teacher and the owner are the same person.

RING

Jeremie's cell phone rang. He picked it up. "Hello."

"_Before you hop off to the Hermitage, I suggest you three get some lunch._ _Don't just jump off the deep end,"_ Cassidy's voice was calm.

"Okay," Jeremie said.

**-Lunchtime, now-**

Jeremie and the boys made it. They grabbed their trays, seized the foods they needed, and ambled over to where Aelita, Cassidy, Yumi, and William are.

Cassidy passed a book over to Jeremie. "Here!"

"The Tunic Wars?" Odd asked.

"_Punic_ not _Tunic_; the war between the Romans and the Carthaginians. We had a whole section about it three months ago," Cassidy said.

Just then, Cassidy had a flash. Not a spark-flash or a lighter eye-color flash. A white eyes flash. Aelita looked to her friend. "Cassidy?" she was concerned. So was William.

The brown-haired girl grabbed Aelita by the wrist. It all happened so suddenly. "Cassidy," Yumi and Jeremie snapped their fingers.

But this didn't wake Cassidy up. She was out of it. The two, Aelita trying to resist, ran out of the cafeteria and into the forest.

Everyone but William chased after her. Odd was the first to stop to catch his breath. "The girl may not be athletic, but she sure can run fast."

Ulrich ran back, reprimanded Odd a little, then picked up his charge and caught up to the rest of the group.

Meanwhile, Cassidy and Aelita got to the factory. Cassidy still was under her power. (_Get Aelita to the new sector,_ a new voice told her.)

Aelita had her first flashback.

**FLASHBACK #6**

_She was yelling at Jeremie. But she (in the present) didn't know why she was yelling at her Savior for._

**END OF FLASHBACK**

Doing the self-delayed virtualization for the both of them, Aelita and Cassidy made it to Lyoko's forest sector. Aelita needed some way to get Cassidy out of her trance. On Lyoko, she was a little useless. Oh, if only Odd were here.

The cat-like female grabbed Aelita again and pulled her to the edge of the sector. No monsters stopped them as a white ball with a blue eye of XANA appeared.

Aelita fought against Cassidy, but she was like a statue.

"_Aelita!"_ Jeremie's voice came through.

"Jeremie, Cassidy…" But the ball covered the two girls and transported them to a new sector.

"_Aelita, Cassidy!"_ Jeremie said.

"Problem, Jeremie?" Yumi asked.

"Get to the scanners," Jeremie was desperate.

Soon Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi were on Lyoko's Forest Sector.

Yumi and the others ran to where the two girls were before the transport. "What?" Odd asked. "Aelita and Cassidy are already gone? Cassidy's powers must be hard to get rid of."

"Cassidy dragged Aelita into this, but why?" Ulrich mused.

"_I don't know," _Jeremie said. _"I lost the two from my screens!"_

"You—you mean, they—?" Yumi was getting more and more concerned.

"No!" Jeremie was typing. "Uh…I doubt it. I think they just…disappeared from the screens as if…wait!" He typed more frantically. "What is going _on?_" He asked. "I got it! I got a signal! A very weak one, but—hey, that's strange. Aelita and Cassidy aren't on this sector anymore. They're not in any sector actually…"

Ulrich waved Jeremie and said, "Whoa, wait. Can you explain it a little better?"

"_No, not really…Let's say they're in a sector…that doesn't even exist. A _fifth_ sector."_

"Huh?" Odd asked. "A fifth sector? Have you gone bananas or what?"

Jeremie was kinda shocked. "No! If I could only fix this thing…maybe I…" A code window pulled up. "'Welcome to Carthage'?" Jeremie got confused.

**-In the new sector-**

Aelita and Cassidy woke up in the new sector. "Aelita?" Cassidy asked.

"Cassidy," Aelita smiled. "You've got out of your trance."

Cassidy raised both her eyebrows. "I did?" It sounded dumb but it wasn't like that.

The blue room literally spun around. Then…it stopped. A bright light shown near the left. "Where do you think it goes?" Aelita asked.

Cassidy thought and said, "The Core Zone! It's a room here."

The two girls ran into the white light.

**-Forest-**

"Is this going to take long, Jeremie?" Yumi asked.

"I hope not," Jeremie was getting worried and curious at the same time.

Then hornets arrived. Odd hopped on the OverBoard. "Now things are really starting to buzz."

No sooner as they got some of the hornets out of the way, they got back to the edge of the sector. "Jeremie what are we doing?" Ulrich asked.

"Wait I got a little problem," Jeremie said.

That caused some commotion.

"I need the password. Something to do with Carthage, I think."

"This is no time for history lessons," said Ulrich.

"A history lesson. That's exactly what I need," Jeremie was gaining confidence. He grabbed the Punic Wars book and felt a leaflet in the pages.

"Huh?"

He pulled it out, and out came a letter that read: SCIPIO, Jeremie. From Cassidy

P.S. SCIPIO is a code to get into the new sector.

Jeremie told his friends to get back to the edge of the sector, and then typed in the code.

The transport came and whisked the other three away.

**-With Aelita and Cassidy-**

Aelita and Cassidy walked up to the wall. The bespectacled girl felt it with her fingers. "It's as if it has had a slicer here," she muttered to herself.

It split, causing the two to jump back. Cassidy creased a brow. "No wonder Odd called me the nervous system."

Soon the two went exploring…until a creepy…thing came. They tried to run for it, but then Cassidy realized that she still had her weapon.

Reaching for it, she turned around, turned it into a gun and shot at it. KA-BLAM!

It exploded in a thousand pixels.

Backing up into the Core Zone, Cassidy panted. "We're safe!"

Aelita didn't respond. "Aelita?"

No response. She turned around. A jellyfish-like monster was holding her friend. "Aelita!" She growled and then ROARED. She didn't like this monster and it had her friend. She aimed her gun. POW!

Aelita was safe, but not the jellyfish. It had a bullet crammed in the membrane.

"Let's get out of here," Cassidy picked Aelita up and ran her back to the start.

Their friends were already there. "Guys, no time to explain, let's just get out of here!" Cassidy said.

"S-C-I-P-I-O," Jeremie typed.

They all got out of there.

**-Back to Jeremie's Room- **

"So we get to the Core Zone, and we hit Creeper trouble. Just one creepy thing, a Creeper. Then I shoot that and I tell Aelita that we were safe, but she doesn't say anything. Turns out Aelita was held by a jellyfish monster. I get its membrane bulleted and we get out of there."

"We were scared," Aelita said. "And to think it was stealing my memory."

"Well, one thing's for sure, we'll be careful about you and your visions," Odd said.

"I'm sorry," Cassidy said.

"Apology accepted," Aelita said.

"William forgave me, too," Cassidy said.

"And I'll teach you plenty of ways to tell Sissi to go to—"

"MARCUSVILLE!" Cassidy bellowed.

Everyone looked at her strangely. The brown-haired girl said,  
"Heck!

"Well, well, this is terrific," A high-pitched voice said. "You are all together. I guess the white north wasn't all it seemed."

Cassidy scowled.

"Yeah while you were taking your third appropriate shower of the day!" Ulrich scolded.

"Well, you know Ulrich dear, a beautiful flower like _me_ needs to be watered often," Sissi said.

Odd got really angry. "You—"

Aelita smiled. "Yes, you never know you might just sprout a brain."

Cassidy and the others laughed.

"Morons," Sissi said and left.

"I think you can give Odd lessons, Aelita!" Ulrich laughed.

"You sure learn fast," Yumi said.

Odd and Aelita hugged.


	11. Time to Explore

**Code Lyoko © Moonscoop/Toowam/Antefilms/Taffy Entertainment**

**Cassidy © Me. If you want her, ask me, tell me why, and I may, or may not, lend her over.**

Aelita was running to the deactivated tower. "Aelita, hurry. Yumi's only got ten life points left!" Jeremie was getting desperate.

Aelita got into the tower.

"Get ready, girls, I'm starting up the devirtualization process!" Jeremie typed on the computer.

"Ulrich, I know you are getting tired of the same ole routine," Cassidy looked to Ulrich with a hint of sympathy. "Sometimes I do, too, but I'm still in the game!"

"Still, sometimes I really wish we were done with XANA!" Ulrich had gotten a little angry.

"You missed a chapter, Ulrich **(A/N: Get it, because it's a chapter)**. Remember? Aelita's carrying around a miserable link/virus that is connected with our old friend, XANA. Bye-bye XANA equals bye-bye Aelita," Odd came to terms with it. The two girls came up to the lab.

"And, I don't know how to create a breaker/antivirus," Jeremie said. "I mean, not just yet."

Aelita wasn't mad at Jeremie. But she did have an idea. "Hey, I have an idea. Why don't we explore that new, mysterious sector we discovered?"

"Great idea, Aelita!" Cassidy smiled.

"Sector 5? But we don't know what's in it!" Jeremie said.

"Sure we do!" Odd said confidently. "According to Cassidy, there are monsters, ultra-dangerous traps, and the Schyphozoa, as you call it that wants to steal Aelita's memory."

"You're right," Aelita felt ready. "But what if there was something else there? Like information about XANA? We have to go back."

"Here, Yumi," Cassidy gave Yumi a note. "It says a line in case your parents get suspicious."

Yumi opened the note, a tad suspicious, and read silently. The line was: "I'm in love!"

"Will that line work?" Yumi asked.

"Did my text for Sissi to walk into the boys' showers work?" Cassidy cocked a brow.

"I still remember that one," Odd exclaimed. "You did excellent, Cassidy."

Cassidy blushed, a little embarrassed. "It was nothing. I only did that because I sensed that Sissi was going to do the same thing to Aelita. So the plan worked."

"It was something," Yumi smiled.

"Good idea," Ulrich said to both Aelita and Cassidy. "All four of us will go!"

"You mean all _five_ of us?" Aelita said. "I want to be part of this expedition!"

"That's right," Cassidy said, defending Aelita. "Don't leave Aelita out!"

"With that Schyphozoa slinking around? No way!" Jeremie got out of his chair.

"Come on, Jeremie," Cassidy frowned. "I bulleted the Schyphozoa last time!"

"AND you put Aelita in DANGER!" Jeremie yelled.

"I didn't mean to! My visions controlled me! It's not my fault I'm a _dangerous psychic_! If I knew that my visions would control me, I would have kept myself away from the cafeteria. But I didn't. So there!" Cassidy yelled back.

Jeremie could see where the psychic cat warrior was going with this and sighed defeated.

"What if there's a tower to deactivate," Aelita put in. "Think about it! I have to be there."

Odd and Cassidy put hands on Aelita's shoulders. Odd decided it was his turn to put his two-penny worth in. "Come on, Einstein. With bodyguards like us, she has nothing to worry about. And I promise to be careful."

Cassidy smiled.

"Okay, tomorrow night, exploration!" Jeremie declared.

"Alright!" Cassidy exclaimed. "We're gonna explore Sector 5 and hopefully come out alive!"

Jeremie chuckled a little.

**-Outside-**

"Oh, my, gosh, it's so late," Yumi gasped. "My parents must be going bananas!"

"Calm down, Yumi! I promise if you use the line, your parents will believe you!" Cassidy said.

"And _if they don't?_"

"You can kick my butt tomorrow," Cassidy frowned sheepishly. "Odd, you and Ulrich can help me with my Will."

"Okay, but Will_iam_ will be downtrodden to hear his girlfriend's fate!" Odd joked.

Cassidy smiled a little.

"Bye," Yumi said. "See ya tomorrow!"

"Climb the tree, Yumi!" Cassidy called when Yumi was ten feet away from her.

"And as for us, we missed dinner again," Odd said, checking the time on his cell phone.

Cassidy's stomach growled. "Odd, please don't mention food at this time!"

"And it was spaghetti and meatballs night!" Odd said.

Cassidy's stomach growled louder. "Odd, you are so cursing me!"

**-At Yumi's-**

Yumi didn't get what her brown-haired friend said. So she slipped inside, and her parents were there as soon as she shut the door.

"Yumi, we need to talk," her father said.

_At the right moment, spring the line_, Cassidy's words bounced in Yumi's head.

As Yumi ate a late dinner, her father talked. "You come home late every single night. Tonight is the last straw! It's past ten o'clock and you didn't bother to telephone us."

"And you haven't eaten anything either," Yumi's mom said. "What's going on, dear? If you have a problem, you know you can tell us!"

_Right moment is NOW!_ Cassidy's words made Yumi jump mentally.

"I'm in love, okay?" Yumi said.

A voice behind the kitchen walls was laughing.

"Hiroki, get out here!" She yelled.

A young boy with black hair, a Jeremie-like turtleneck (only yellow), and red-maroon shorts came in.

The line made Yumi's parents soften.

"And would you tell us your boyfriend's name?" Yumi's mom asked.

"No, sorry, I won't mom!" Yumi said.

"We'll let you off the hook, Yumi!" Yumi's dad said.

Yumi nodded her thanks, finished dinner, and went to bed.

_Now I see a reason to let Cassidy live._

**-The next morning, in Jeremie's room-**

"…and they bought it," Yumi said. "Cassidy, you're a genius."

Cassidy blushed bright red. "Please, I'm anything, but that!"

"Anyway, I told my parents at breakfast that you called me and wanted me to sleep over at your dorm again," Yumi said.

"Did that work?" Aelita asked, curiously.

"Yes," Yumi said. "My mom and dad didn't think anything of it. I told them again and again when the…thing occurred."

Cassidy squirmed a little. The sea thing was still something she'd rather forget.

"Well, we better tear up the will." Odd proceeded to do so. "And to think you were going to give me your Jet Fusion game!"

"What was bequeathed to the rest of us?" Ulrich cocked a brow.

"Ulrich: she would have given you her DS. Yumi: She would have given you her sketchbook. Jeremie good buddy: Her quarter collection of almost all 50 states. William: She would have given him her comic adventure that she was creating. Aelita, she saved you for last: A drawing book of all her visions that she had had over the past months."

"Whoa," Ulrich was impressed.

The will torn up, Cassidy smiled. She would live.

"Did you study for the marine biology test?" Jeremie asked Odd.

"Cassidy made me **(A/N: Moonlitdaze, if you are reading this, yes I grabbed the inspiration from you)**," Odd frowned.

"After we made the will," Cassidy prompted.

**-Later that night-**

The sewers were alive with noise. Cassidy was riding her bike; Jeremie and Aelita, scooters; Odd, Ulrich and Yumi had skateboards.

"Why do you have a bike down here?" Aelita asked her tone curious.

"She doesn't do well with skateboards or scooters!" Odd informed her.

"With a bike, I have more control," Cassidy smiled.

**-A few minutes later-**

Jeremie started the processes and everyone was in Lyoko's Forest Sector. "Get to the edge of the sector!" he commanded.

"We will, just call us some taxis and we'll get there," Cassidy smirked.

"Since when do you take my line?" Odd slyly asked.

Cassidy just giggled. "Do you think I will tell?"

"Uh…no?"

"By the way, how was your marine-biology exam?" Yumi asked.

"I think Aelita, Jeremie, Odd, Ulrich and I did fine," Cassidy said.

Ulrich looked to her as if she had virtual corn growing out of her ears. "Did you look off of our tests?"

"No," Cassidy crossed her arms across her chest icon **(A/N: It's a cat's paw print)**. "I would never do that. Cross my heart and hope to not fall into the digital sea. Trust me. I didn't like going down there the first time and I don't want to come back. It ain't pretty."

The vehicles arrived and everyone got to the edge of the sector.

**S-C-I-P-I-O**

The transporter arrived and whisked all of the warriors to Sector 5.

It was like a train ride with all the curves of a roller coaster.

Everyone got off at the right stop.

"Welcome to Sector 5 everyone!" Jeremie told the team.

"You're telling me," Odd complained, rubbing his stomach. "I feel like I'm going to be sick!"

"I know what will make you feel better!" Cassidy said.

"What?" Odd asked. It was the "What is it" what again.

"Take some ginger before we go to Lyoko," Cassidy said. "Mythbusters confirms that it works."

"Really!"

"Yep," Cassidy said as the room stopped spinning.

"Let's go," Ulrich smiled.

They entered the core zone.

"To stop the countdown, we need to touch a key mark, and since the layout of the core zone varies by visit—" Cassidy sparked a flash—"Follow me."

"Are you nuts," Odd asked.

"If I was would I be right?"

Odd didn't answer that question.

"Just follow Cassidy," Jeremie said.

The walls opened up. "Anyone up for a stair challenge," Cassidy smiled.

"But it was flat the last time," Yumi pointed out.

"Ah…but remember the core zone varies by visit," Cassidy gave her friend a wry smile.

Cassidy led her friends in a few, easy directions. Then the cat-girl saw something. "There!" Cassidy said. "We'll get there in no time. How much time do we have left, speak of the devil in disguise."

"One minute, forty-seven seconds," Jeremie said.

"That's easy time," Odd said.

"Since when do you take my line?" Cassidy smiled.

"Do you think I will tell?" Odd laughed.

Ulrich ran up to the key. "What should we do?"

"Press it!" Cassidy ran up to her friend.

Ulrich did.

Cassidy spark-flashed again. "The elevator's right this way!"

"_You know everything don't you,"_ Jeremie asked.

"Yes, but I'm not expert!" Cassidy would have blushed if she were on Earth.

Soon they got to the elevator. _"Remember what we do with elevators?"_ Jeremie said.

"WE RIDE THEM!" Everyone yelled happily.

Everyone jumped on. And soon… "We will be close to the celestial dome." Cassidy smiled.

The elevator changed directions and soon stopped at a door. "We need to grab something from here, and then we'll be on our way. Jeremie, could you send our vehicles first?"

Jeremie did as Cassidy asked.

Aelita saw something up in the next room. "It's an interface," Yumi whispered.

"What exactly are we looking for," Aelita asked, working the interface.

"A devirtualization key, since we can't devirtualize out of this Sector yet," Cassidy said.

Aelita understood her reasoning. "Okay!"

As Aelita worked, some manta-like monsters came in.

"Battle stations everyone, we have some enemies coming in," Cassidy waited for Odd to jump on the Overboard so she could get on.

**(A/N: My OC's vehicle is a land-only vehicle.)**

Soon Aelita got what was important. "Good job Aelita, now we don't have to worry about not returning to Earth."

"That's why?" Yumi took care of her monster.

"Yep," Cassidy said. "It's like Jeremie said, I know almost everything."

Everyone got a good laugh out of this, including Cassidy.


	12. Today was NOT a Great Day

**Disclaimer: I don't own Code Lyoko, and won't unless I worked for Moonscoop/Toowam/Antefilms/Taffy/Whatever!**

**Claimer: I do own Cassidy as she is mine. If you want her, ask me first! State your reason! Then wait for my confirmation or my denying. I hope you understand.**

Sector 5…a vast interface where our heroes' enemy XANA lives.

Aelita was working on the interface as her friends (Odd, Yumi, Ulrich, and Cassidy) waited on-edge for her to finish. Cassidy was taking the time to sit down and practice shooting at the data stream. Weird for her, she never ran out of bullets or any other ammunition.

"_What about the Mantas,"_ Jeremie was getting tired. _"How're we doing?"_

"They'll be hatching soon," Cassidy sounded bored. "I'm just shooting bullets at the data stream, and yet it never gets damaged."

"Well, this is Lyoko," Odd joked. "Almost nothing gets damaged here!"

"Except for some of Aelita's creativity projects—destruction! And some of the landscape," Cassidy waited.

"Anyway, judging by the size of the nests, we're gonna have some big bouncing babies," Odd smiled.

"Yup," Cassidy faked a yawn. It was impossible to get physically tired on Lyoko. So faking a yawn was the best the girl could do.

"_Okay, that's it for now Aelita,"_ Jeremie said.

"Just a little longer, Jeremie," Aelita begged, "We've never been able to access this much data."

"_Let me take over now, okay,"_ Jeremie asked.

"Aelita, listen I don't wanna rush you, but uh…" Odd pointed.

The mantas came out. "Jeremie, they're here!" Yumi said.

"_Okay, I've got things under control,_" Jeremie came in. _"Three vehicles coming right up!"_

The vehicles came up on either side of the platform. Odd back-flipped on his vehicle; Ulrich climbed on to his; and Yumi hopped on hers. Cassidy hopped on to Ulrich's side.

Yumi was about to go alone, but stopped to pick up Aelita. There was a barrage of laser fire.

"Open up a tunnel before Odd and Ulrich get into a gender conversation," Cassidy cringed. "Besides, I'd rather _not _figure out the gender of the Mantas thank you!"

Unfortunately, Odd just had to rip it. "Wow, still babies and check 'em out!"

And unfortunately, Ulrich just had to jump into the conversation. "What do ya think they are: Male or Female?"

"JEREMIE!" Cassidy screeched.

"_I'm doing my best, Cassidy, sheesh!"_

"I don't think that Yumi, Aelita, and I would love to have biology lessons on the gender of our _monster friends!_" Cassidy grumbled.

"True," Yumi came up beside the pair. "Cassidy if you want, hop on!"

Aelita moved over so that Cassidy could join the girls. "Thanks, Yumi."

"No problem," Yumi said.

The tunnel opened. _"And, Cassidy, I don't think breaking my eardrum would suffice anything."_

"I'm lucky that my so-called friend stopped visiting!" Cassidy said.

**-Later-**

"And there you go! The data-analysis program is running," Jeremie said.

"Great," Odd said coming from the elevator. "And what does that mean exactly?"

"With all the data that we've been able to recover, I've got a good chance at finding the antivirus!" Jeremie was sitting in the hot seat.

Ulrich and the others walked up to Jeremie. "You mean that…pretty soon we'll be able to shut down the super calculator?"

"Exactly," Jeremie said. "And if it works, Aelita will be no longer tied to XANA by that miserable virus."

"Oh, shoot," Odd quipped. "What are we gonna do with all our free time, I mean if we can't save the world anymore?"

"You might study a little more," Yumi said. "And learn something for once!"

"Odd? Studying for him might take two or three return trips to jog _his _noggin!" Cassidy said, giving Yumi and the others, minus Odd, a hint.

Jeremie checked his watch. "Three A.M. Wow! We better head for our rooms if we don't wanna get caught!"

"Yumi, you could say that you were studying with Aelita and me. I'll just tell the same story!" Cassidy said.

"Okay," Yumi understood.

**-Later, in the dorms-**

"Well, goodnight," Jeremie said.

"You mean, what's left of it!" Odd was half-outraged. He missed out on dinner again which was meatballs and gravy.

Jeremie led Cassidy and Aelita up to their room. Cassidy pulled Jeremie and Aelita inside. "Sissi is watching. Shhh…whisper!" she whispered.

"What?" Jeremie was about to say when Cassidy covered his mouth.

"Walls and corn have ears, Einstein!" Cassidy whispered. "Sissi too in that matter."

"Why would she be watching?" Aelita whispered.

"She wants to record something private. I won't say what it is." Cassidy shifted her eyes around.

"Okay," Aelita said.

Jeremie pried the second girl's hand from his mouth. "I'll just go to bed now!"

"Good plan!" Cassidy said.

"Goodnight, you two," Jeremie said.

**-Meanwhile-**

Sissi tapped the stop recording button on her Walkman. "Gee," she whispered to herself. "Is there anything Cassidy McGuire doesn't know? Well I'm going to ask her in private. This time I got her!"

**-Meanwhile, factory-**

**Some of the data turned red.**

**-The next morning-**

Jeremie's alarm clock woke the aforementioned person up with Sky Radio. The Subsonics was playing their smash hit: Break Away.

Turning off the radio, Jeremie put on his glasses and smiled. The radio promised a great day.

**-At Yumi's-**

"Hi, Daddy," Yumi said, grabbing her breakfast.

Her father turned off the radio. "I can't help but wonder what a girl at your age could possibly be doing out at such a late hour. There's a boy behind this, isn't there?" He pounded the table, almost displacing the radio.

"No, Daddy!" She tried for innocence. "I was studying at Cassidy's dorm, and she proved to be of a great help."

"I'll give her a call!" He sounded like he didn't believe her.

**-Cassidy and Aelita's dorm-**

RING

Cassidy picked up her cell phone. "Yellow," she said, happily.

"_Was Yumi at your dorm studying last night?"_ Yumi's dad sounded angry.

Picking enough sang froid, she smiled. "Yes she did!"

"_Really?"_ the father of her friend was unconvinced.

"Yes," Cassidy sounded really convincing. "We lost track of time so badly."

"_Okay," _he said.

They both politely hung up.

Cassidy smiled. Today was the perfect day to lie.

Taking her toiletries and clothes, she went outside the door. "Time to get the great day started."

"Going somewhere," a high-pitched voice said.

Cassidy jumped out of her skin. "Sissi, don't do that. I get jumpy when someone is sneaky. My dad is the perfect example."

"Oh, I just want to talk. Ya know, girl-to-girl," Sissi said.

Losing the remaining sang froid she had remaining, the brown-haired girl looked to the black-haired one worriedly. She probably recorded the conversation from a few hours ago.

"Okay," Cassidy said.

"Okay, great," Sissi said. "Would you listen to something for me? You'll see. There's not a lot of music, but the words are really interesting."

Cassidy's stomach twisted in a knot. There she was in her night clothes, and Sissi was harassing her already.

**-Later in Class-**

"She taped the conversation out of the off chance that I would slip about you-know-where!" Cassidy was shaking.

"But, what does she want exactly?" Ulrich whispered.

"She wants me to be friends with her, and explain why I'm psychic from A to Z," Cassidy said. "If not, she'll squeal to everyone, including her father."

"But that doesn't make sense," Odd said. "Why would Sissi want to tell her father that you're psychic? She might as well get sent to the infirmary for inventing such a wild story like that."

"By the way, Odd, the answer to the question from Mrs. Hertz to you is 32 grams per mole," Cassidy whispered to Odd. "Seriously, I don't want you to fail miserably today."

"WOW!" Odd shouted by accident.

"Excuse me you four, but do you mind if I teach a class here," Mrs. Hertz asked, making Cassidy jump.

Cassidy was too far shocked.

"Not at all, ma'am. After all, it _is_ your job," Odd said calmly.

Cassidy was trying to calm down, but she was utterly failing. Jeremie noticed the situation.

"Yes, and my job is also to ask questions, isn't it Odd, so would you be kind enough to tell me the mass in moles of two oxygen atoms?" Mrs. Hertz was angry, Cassidy could tell through her shock.

"32 grams per mole, ma'am!" Odd said.

"Uh…oh, yes, that's right," Mrs. Hertz was surprised. "Very well Odd. Now please, would you explain to me the principle of photosynthesis?"

"Of course, ma'am. That would be the synthesis of oxygen from plants processing chlorophyll placed in light," Odd said.

Cassidy grew more into shock. She never told Odd that! Yet it came so naturally to him.

"Odd," Mrs. Hertz was unknowingly talking for Cassidy, "is it really you? You haven't been replaced by a clone?"

"No, ma'am, why?" Odd asked. "Is something wrong?"

"No…uh…no," Mrs. Hertz said. "Let's go on with our lesson!"

Odd looked to Cassidy. "What's the matter?"

Cassidy tried to find the words to speak but it was useless.

**-After class-**

"Whatever happens, we can't let Sissi expose Cassidy," Jeremie said.

Cassidy was still in shock.

Ulrich was practicing his Pencak Silat. "Don't worry, Jeremie. I won't let her expose Cassidy. I have an idea." On the word "idea", Ulrich practiced a high kick.

Jeremie was holding a water bottle. Due to the situation in class, Jeremie took the time to go down to the vending machine and buy a bottle of water.

Cassidy was wide-eyed, staring at Odd.

SPLASH

Cassidy sputtered and coughed a little. "What was that for!" she asked, her long, brown hair limp with water.

"For the shock," Jeremie smiled.

"Thanks," Cassidy muttered. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to change clothes."

Cassidy walked off, not even a hint angry at Jeremie.

**-This oughtta be good-**

"I'm so happy that you finally to give me a lesson of Pen char key lat," Sissi said.

"Pencak Silat," Ulrich corrected, holding his high kick position.

"Whatever, well, I wonder what could have made you change your mind all of a sudden?" Sissi asked.

Cassidy and Yumi walked stealthily into the girls' locker room. Cassidy was now wearing a white Saddlebreds horse shirt and dark navy blue shorts.

"It's this one!" Cassidy opened Sissi's locker, but a flash occurred. "It's not there. Hervé and Nicholas have it, and they're on their way here now!"

Cassidy tugged Yumi away from the lockers and into the boiler room. Blocking the way with barrels, Cassidy backed up and shuddered. "I hope that this will keep them away from us!"

She pressed an ear to the door. "Someone was in Sissi's locker. Sounds like Della Robbia and Belpois," Hervé's voice was heard.

"I don't think so, Hervé. They don't wear red hot crème nail polish," Nicholas was certain.

Cassidy realized that she _was _wearing red hot crème nail polish. Her left pinky nail was chipped. "Crap!" she mouthed.

Then a return trip happened.

**-Back to the morning-**

Cassidy hastened to acetone her fingernails. "If Nicholas and Odd get smart on me again, it'll take more than water to get me!"

"But why?" Aelita asked.

"Nicholas saw a chip off my nail and got smart! Is the world ending right now as we _speak?_" Cassidy was freaking out. "We have the creative masterminded flirt—Odd—shooting off an answer I didn't give him. Then Nicholas gets to be all Sherlock Holmes and points the nail polish to my direction."

"Calm down, Cassidy." Jeremie put a hand on Cassidy's shoulder. He got up to Cassidy's room as soon as he got dressed and put his glasses on. "I didn't program a return in time."

"It's XANA!" She twitched.

"That explains it," Ulrich said. "I also asked Sissi for Pencak Silat lessons."

"Tower's in the Mountain sector," Cassidy said. "Jeremie, we have to stop the returns."

"Why?" Ulrich said.

"Ulrich, do you want Odd to surpass Jeremie _and_ Mrs. Hertz? That could end the world right there as we know it!" Cassidy said.

"Okay, so it's urgent," said Ulrich. "We'll go over."

**-Factory time-**

"The data's been tainted," Cassidy said, and then passed Jeremie a note. "It'll stop the Return in Time."

"Okay," Jeremie typed it in and the program to the returns stopped.

Odd was doing something that he did not do before.

Yumi looked over to him. "Odd, you mind telling us what you're doing over there?"

Odd looked up from his book. "I'm studying!"

Cassidy dropped her jaw.

"That's what you wanted me to do, wasn't it?" Odd said.

Cassidy grabbed the don't-need-a-cord-or-batteries stereo from her big suitcase. "I really don't like doing this to you Odd," She whispered silently to herself and pressed a button.

_Guns and Roses Welcome to the Jungle_ played.

The boy looked to the stereo. "You like Guns and Roses, Cassidy?"

"Yeah," Cassidy said. "I love it. Mr. Brownstone is my favorite."

"This is _Welcome to the Jungle_ though," Odd reminded.

"I love that too," Cassidy smiled.

"Okay," Jeremie pressed the stop button. "We have a tower to deactivate!"

"Right-o, buck-o!" Cassidy chuckled a little.

Soon everyone was on Lyoko.

"Follow Cassidy," Jeremie said.

"Any vehicles this time?" Cassidy smirked for she knew the answer.

"_Sorry, you're going to have to go without vehicles because I don't have the machine resources to bring them up!"_ Jeremie said.

"No problem. This is like the good ole days. Where everyone didn't have vehicles on this world," Cassidy smiled. "I'm in!"

Everyone agreed.

The hornets came and went forcefully. Then a tarantula came and blocked the warriors' path when they were a little ways away from the tower. "One against five, I think we can handle it!" Cassidy smiled.

"Better than nothing!" Ulrich agreed.

Soon Aelita was at the tower and she deactivated it.

**-Cassidy's room-**

"Good excuse to give to Mrs. Hertz," Ulrich smiled. "We all avoided a detention."

"Yep," Cassidy agreed.

"And it helped with Mr. Fumet as well!" Yumi said.

"We did it!" Cassidy smiled.


	13. Discovery: Mister Pück

**I don't own Code Lyoko. I do own Cassidy. Enough has been said.**

Aelita was having a nightmare.

A pack of wolves was chasing an elf through a forest. The alpha was about to attack the poor thing when…

Aelita screamed herself awake. Cassidy, who knew this would happen **(A/N: Obviously)**, woke up, got out of bed, and stepped in front of Aelita as the door to their room opened causing the pink-haired girl to shrink into the covers. "WHO IS THAT _SCREAMING_?" a high-pitched voice asked.

Luckily, Cassidy planned this. She popped a smirk. "You are, Sissi. And it wasn't Aelita's fault that she has nightmares. It's a package deal. Once she gets used to sharing with a roommate—" Aelita knew of the plan—"she'll settle down. At her old school in Canada, she was alone a lot. Since finding her cousin and coming here, she is trying to get used to the having-a-roommate style. So I suggest that you go back to bed. And we are sorry that we had woken you up at five o'clock in the morning for the third night in a row!"

Sissi went back to bed in shock.

"Great work, Cassidy," Aelita smiled.

"It's nothing much," Cassidy blushed.

**-The morning-**

Aelita and Cassidy walked out of their dorm room, happy to get the day started.

"So, you got your history report done?" Cassidy asked, keeping upbeat.

"Yes, you?" Aelita asked back.

"I got it done!" Cassidy nodded. "George Washington's my favorite!"

"Why is that?" Aelita wondered.

"He's the first president of the United States of America _and_ I share his birthday. February 22nd," the bespectacled girl reveled in the facts.

"Didn't he chop down a tree?"

"It's not been confirmed nor denied yet," Cassidy said.

"Oh, I see," Aelita smiled.

They'd already reached the bathroom, so they walked inside. Cassidy sparked a flash. "Wait, Aelita, just eight seconds."

But Aelita, this time, was impatient. "And wait until Sissi comes in? No way!"

"Okay," Cassidy said.

They walked in and Aelita + steam from the shower = bad mix.

**(A/N: That's all I'm going to say!)**

**-Next scene!-**

Aelita was feeling ashamed. She didn't mean to do that thing. The aftermath of her nightmares caused it.

"It's a shame—gah!" Odd was interrupted by a water gun blast. "CASSIDY! Where are you?"

"The hay is in the needle stack so don't even try sticking your hand in," Cassidy's voice sounded.

"What does that mean exactly?" Odd shouted.

"She's saying you'll never find her," Aelita chuckled.

Odd pouted.

Cassidy smiled and jumped out of her hiding place. "We should go to the Hermitage, and don't worry Aelita. We'll be with you every step of the way. I'm positive. If you want, you can hold my hand and Jeremie's hand if you feel like it!"

"Since when did Jeremie resign leadership?" Yumi asked lightly.

"Never," Cassidy shrugged a shoulder.

**-Hermitage time-**

"My legs are shaking," Aelita said.

"It's okay. You're scared. It happens to me sometimes," Cassidy said.

Odd never knew what hit him.

They went inside. As soon as Jeremie stopped he said, "See? Everything is just fine!"

Aelita came out of Jeremie's grip. Cassidy came with.

Going upstairs, they went into a little girl's room that Aelita seemed to be familiar with.

The visions hit there, and Aelita and Cassidy both were caught in the tide.

The elf from Aelita's visions was running from the wolves. He stumbled, causing the other wolves to catch up some. Finding a hole in a tree, he climbed inside, hoping to be safe.

The other wolves passed the elf by, but one wolf found him. Aelita and Cassidy both screamed at two different pitches—Cassidy almost blood-curdling and Aelita in her normal tone. Odd's ears were bleeding. **(A/N: Poor Odd. End A/N)**

The elf backed up screaming a little, the wolf trying to snap at him. Then, the elf found a hole leading to a secret location. He dug at the old leaves to find a chest. As he opened it, a blue mist came out of it. He marveled at the power.

Cassidy and Aelita found strength to pull themselves awake. Yumi looked to them concerned. "Aelita and Cassidy, you okay?"

The vision was clear to both of them. "Yes, I mean, I think so." Aelita spoke first.

Cassidy was shaking. "That's what it feels like to be taken in by something so powerful."

"Did you two share the same vision," Jeremie was worried.

Cassidy and Aelita nodded.

Aelita broke from Cassidy's hand and moved toward what looked like a fireplace. "Yes, but it was different this time. It's as if something or someone was leading me to—there was something in the tree like that one!"

Cassidy knew what the object was, but kept it secret.

The pink-haired girl looked inside, bewildered and in wonder. There was an elf-like replica of the elf from Aelita's nightmares. She grabbed it. An indescribable feeling made her rub the elf lovingly and say in a soft voice, "Mister Pück!"

**-Classroom-**

As soon as the younger members of the group filed into the classroom, Jeremie had Aelita put the thing on the table. "So to make a long story short, Aelita has never seen this toy gnome, but she's been dreaming about it for days and she knows it's called Mister Pück!"

"Elf, Jeremie, _elf_," Cassidy scowled.

"What's more, Cassidy never seen this elf either, but she and Aelita had a chain vision share," Odd said. "Well, whatever it is, this whole story's definitely paranormal!"

A hand grabbed for Mister Pück, but Cassidy grabbed the wrist out of instinct. "SISSI!" Her voice took on an almost-correct southern accent. "This here toy's Aelita here's property, now she doesn't want it stolen, ya hear!"

Sissi smiled and poked Cassidy's tickle-spot with her free hand. The brown-haired girl was surprised and started laughing, still keeping Aelita's toy safe as she hit the ground.

CLINK

A key fell out of the side of Mister Pück and Cassidy grabbed it before Sissi could see it.

Mrs. Mayer came in then. "What is all this noise about?" She saw Sissi giving Cassidy a full-on tickle attack.

"Ms. Delmas!"

Cassidy breathed a sigh of needed relief as Sissi paused. "My second hero."

"I expected better of you than to tickle Ms. McGuire here. Come with me!" Mrs. Mayer pulled Sissi off Cassidy.

"Thanks," Cassidy got up and gave Jeremie the key. "It's a train station locker number," she whispered to him.

"Thanks, Cassidy," Jeremie said.

"Oh, and Aelita," Cassidy gave Mister Pück to her. "Here, he's yours!"

"Thanks!"

**-Train Station, here we come-**

"This is it!" Jeremie said. "Would you—" he meant Aelita—"like to do the honors?"

Aelita unlocked locker 167. It unveiled a suitcase with the letters FH on the top. "Franz Hopper!" Cassidy exclaimed. "This is his diary!"

"You definitely need to psyche down!" Ulrich said.

"Unfortunately, my power is the one who chooses the time to blurt, not me," Cassidy said. "If I were to psyche down, I would have done it ages ago. But I can't."

Ulrich scowled.

"And maybe we'll be able to find out more about the Hermitage's mysterious owner!" Yumi said.

"He—mph!" Ulrich wrapped his hand around Cassidy's mouth.

"For sure, but not right away. Everything's encrypted," Jeremie said.

"OUCH!" Ulrich yelped. Cassidy bit him.

"Franz Hopper was married," Cassidy said, "But the fate of his wife is unknown."

Ulrich looked to the girl strangely, but shrugged it off.

"I'll have to decode it first," Jeremie said ignoring Ulrich's daring outburst.

"How much time do you need?" Ulrich asked. "One, maybe two hours?"

"More like one or two years," Jeremie sounded grim.

"We don't call you 'Einstein' for naught, Einstein. You found Aelita's materialization program, and you can decode Franz Hopper's diary because I believe WE CAN!" Cassidy smiled in emotional pride.

"If you say so!" Jeremie said.

**-XANA's at it again (oh, joy)—skip to the next morning-**

Ulrich, in his PJs, looked to a sleeping Odd. "Come on, Time to get up!"

Odd groaned. "Just a little bit longer."

**-Cassidy and Aelita's room-**

Aelita and Cassidy were doing the same thing. (Cassidy being the sleeper and Aelita trying to wake her up)

**-Back to Ulrich and Odd-**

Ulrich decided to walk out. "I'm gonna take a shower."

**-Back to Aelita and Cassidy-**

Same thing.

**-XANA-**

Both sleeping boy and girl were attacked at the same time. Cassidy fell out of bed, quickly emptying Cassidy of the entity.

Odd got up and XANA came out both his ears.

He came into the bathroom and asked Theo if Ulrich was in there. Sure enough, Ulrich was attacked as well but, like Odd and Cassidy, he wasn't possessed either.

**-Let's see how the girls are-**

Cassidy ran into the girls' room and asked Emily if Aelita was there. Aelita came out, still clothed, at the sound of her name. "What is it?"

Cassidy made some random noises and screeches as a code for, "XANA attacked me and probably Odd and Ulrich too!"

Aelita only half-understood what Cassidy said. "I don't understand; who attacked you and Odd and Ulrich as well?"

Cassidy used her body to spell out XANA's name, but had a hard time doing the A's and the only N.

Aelita got worried. "We should see Jeremie."

Cassidy nodded.

**-Jeremie's room-**

"Jeremie!" Cassidy was scared. "Get up!"

"What, huh?" Jeremie was waking up.

"XANA attacked Odd, Ulrich, and me," Cassidy said so quickly it almost was one word.

"Repeat it slower, please?" Jeremie asked. He didn't know how to translate Cassidy's quick talking.

"XANA attacked Odd, Ulrich, and me," Cassidy repeated slower. She clung onto Aelita and shook. "That was scary."

"Don't worry," Ulrich soothed Jeremie. "No harm done. They ran away."

Jeremie got onto his computer. "The super-scan didn't detect any activated towers! XANA's attack failed. That's weird. He's already learned how to possess humans, but not you three."

Odd shrugged and he and Ulrich left the room.

Cassidy was starting to sob. Aelita looked to Jeremie. "And Cassidy's in shock."

"I'd rather be back in that sea!" Cassidy yelled into Aelita's shirt.

"Must be Post-Traumatic Stress," Jeremie said. "Lend her to me—I'll try to calm her down."

"You know how?" Aelita asked.

"Yeah, with Cassidy, stress and shock get her easy, but I know the solution," Jeremie promised.

Aelita nodded and handed Cassidy over to Jeremie and went to take a shower.

Calming Cassidy was a little hard, but nothing was too hard for Jeremie. Cassidy calmed down when she was shown a Whose Line clip.

(Ryan: I want from generations now I want people talking about the alamunia the alimony!

Colin: No! We're not married anymore!

Ryan: I want them to say remember the alimony.

Colin: No!

Ryan: What?

Colin: What do you want them to say? Forget the alimony! That marriage isn't legal in this state.

Ryan: Good!)

Cassidy giggled and guffawed. "That was great!"

The inside shock died down.

"Cassidy, you okay, now?" Jeremie asked.

"Yeah," she brushed off her shoulder a little.

"That was bad huh?" Jeremie was concerned.

"I was scared to death," Cassidy shivered.

Just then one of XANA's ghosts found the pair of friends. Cassidy noticed—she knew that Jeremie wasn't immune to XANA possession and what would happen. "Jeremie LOOK OUT!"

Jeremie seemed to dodge the ghost, but it was faster. It got to Jeremie as fast as it could.

"NO!" Cassidy screeched.

But it was no good. XANA's ghost possessed Jeremie. Cassidy put up a fighting stance. "If you need Aelita, XANA, then you are going to have to go through me to get her."

Electricity sparked. Cassidy used her wits about her. She dodged and skipped crazily around the room. She typed the super-scan when she had a chance. She found the location of the tower. "The Ice Sector, south, southeast."

Unfortunately the lapse in concentration cost her. XANA-Jeremie zapped her in the back and she passed out.

XANA-Jeremie carried her to the factory as fast as XANA could. He set her down in the elevator.

XANA's next task, Aelita. He ran to the school and got dressed for PE.

**-Gym-**

"Running is the noblest event in athletics," Jim said, "except for maybe for the long jump or the shot-put, javelin, high-jump, pole vault. Some of you may associate running with cowardice as in running away. Nothing could be further from the truth as he who runs well goes far!"

"Cassidy's not here," Odd whispered to the gang. "Did something bad happen to her?"

Aelita looked to Jeremie. "Jeremie!" Jim wanted him to go first. "Uh…let's see how powerful your strides are."

Jeremie nodded mutely and got to the starting line. "For those of you with short memories, let me remind you that uh…what was I about to say? Uh…right. Let me remind you that we start when I say 'Go;' not on 'get set' and not on 'get ready'. Well, after 'get ready' and 'get set', I say 'go'! Right!" Jim got himself ready. And as the PE teacher uttered these commands: "Okay! On your marks, get set, GO!" Jeremie was ready and willing…until he twisted his ankle, causing him to yelp in pain.

"What now?" Jim said.

"I twisted my ankle," Jeremie was in pain.

Jim taunted the limping boy and told Hervé to take Jeremie to the infirmary.

"Jim, would you mind if Aelita came with me instead?" Jeremie hopped on his "good" leg.

"Okay," Jim was getting ticked off. "Whatever. Take him _far away_ from me."

**-Later-**

Jeremie was walking better.

**-Yumi-**

She was washing her hands because a friend of hers spilled chemicals on it. **(A/N: It's not skin threatening. End A/N)**

**-Back to A&J-**

Aelita noticed. "Jeremie, you're not limping anymore. Has your ankle stopped hurting?"

Jeremie looked to her, the blatant XANA symbol in his eyes. And before Aelita could scream for help, he knocked her out.

**-Yumi-**

She saw Jeremie carry Aelita to the factory. Getting worried, she got on her phone and called Ulrich.

**-Ulrich and Odd-**

Ulrich's phone buzzed. "Yumi?"

**-Back to Yumi-**

"Ulrich, I think Jeremie's been possessed by XANA!" Yumi said.

**-Back to Odd and Ulrich-**

"Are you sure?" Ulrich was getting just as worried as Yumi was. "This morning, Odd, Cassidy, and I were almost possessed by a couple of ghosts but they didn't succeed."

"_Wait! Is Cassidy with you?"_ Yumi asked.

"No, after having a calming down session with Jeremie, she didn't show up,"Ulrich said. "Why would it work on Jeremie?"

"_No idea, but I saw him heading for the parklands,"_ Yumi said.

**-Back to Yumi-**

"Aelita was in his arms. She was unconscious," Yumi continued.

**-Back to Odd and Ulrich-**

"Oh, no," Ulrich whispered.

**-To Jeremie and Aelita-**

Jeremie picked up the tunnel cap and tossed it into a tree trunk.

**-Yumi-**

"I'll check the super-scan," Yumi raced out of the science building. "Let's meet at the factory."

**-Ulrich and Odd-**

The runner ran out of energy and Jim berated her on it as Ulrich hung up with Yumi.

Jim wanted Ulrich to run next.

"Uh…okay, but I've got to go to the restroom, first," Ulrich stood up.

Odd raised his hand. "Oh, and I gotta go too, Jim!"

Jim was getting increasingly ticked off. "Okay, okay, _make it snappy_!"

Odd and Ulrich rushed by him.

**-Yumi-**

Yumi saw that the super-scan had been opened. "Cassidy must've done it. Says here, Ice Sector, south, southeast!" She muttered to herself.

She wrote down the coordinates and left the room.

**-Cassidy-**

Cassidy woke up feeling woozy. _Ugh. That's gonna leave a mark. XANA definitely has some punch. Ow._

She pulled herself up as she opened her eyes. Everything looked doubled. "Dang, XANA! I'll think twice before I distract myself."

She walked into a pole. _It ain't easy with a dizzy spectrum._ She turned to face the two-in-her-eyes elevators and looked above them. Jeremie was there. _He's possessed by XANA now. Only hope—Aelita getting to the tower and deactivating it. _

She wobbly ambled up the ramp and faced XANA-Jeremie. "I'll save you, Aelita."

She put up a woozy fighting stance. "XANA, I'm going to stop you!" she mumbled.

Slowly stalling XANA-Jeremie, she was relieved when she saw her friends arrive. "Hey, guys. Look who I've found. It's Aelita!" She put on a loopy smile.

Her friends attacked XANA-Jeremie and helped Aelita. Cassidy could only stand and smile.

Odd grabbed Cassidy and gave her to Yumi and Ulrich. "She's in even _worse _shape."

"Okay," Yumi said. "Come on Cassidy. We'll get to the lab."

Cassidy's forte couldn't hold out and she slithered back into darkness.

When she woke up, she felt a little bit better. "Aelita?"

"I'm here, Cassidy," Aelita put a hand on her friend's head. "What happened to you?"

"Well after you three left, I was calmed by Jeremie—who then wasn't possessed—and shown a favorite TV show clip. Then XANA possessed Jeremie and I ended up putting a good show of wild jumps to avoid getting hit. Then I super-scanned, Jeremie zapped me. Everything was black until I woke up in the elevator of this factory."

"So that's why you weren't at Phys Ed." Aelita helped Cassidy to her feet.

"I'm going to the scanner room," Cassidy said.

"Okay," Aelita said.

Soon, Cassidy, Aelita, Yumi, and Ulrich were on Lyoko.

"So, you were here, huh, Cassidy. Was it Love in an Elevator," Ulrich joked.

"FYI, I was unconscious," Cassidy said, totally better.

"I know, I was just messing with you," Ulrich said.

"It will be the Morning of the Living Bloks soon, Ulrich!" Cassidy sighed.

Everyone was at a run. "He who runs well goes far!" Aelita yelled.

"Oye, Jim said it, didn't he?" Cassidy said. **(A/N: Oye is Spanish for Hey! I love learning Spanish.)**

"Yes," Aelita said. "I caught it off of him."

"Not bad!" Cassidy smiled.

**-Meanwhile with Odd and XANA-Jeremie-**

XANA-Jeremie tried to punch Odd, but he slipped away slyly. "Whoa, I'm so glad that post was there, and not my face! Got any other tricks up your sleeve?"

The XANAfied victim turned around, his hands turning into light-violet, electric sparks, and was about to round on his opponent. Odd cart-wheeled out of the way as XANA-Jeremie broke the elevator button. "Uh-oh! That wasn't very smart, was it? Especially since you're the one who has to fix it."

XANA-Jeremie's head turned to Odd, the unpleasant symbol flashing in his eye.

**-Lyoko-**

The four friends ran up to where the ice was large.

"Bloks are coming, and they are under the ice," Cassidy said. She turned her tube into a gun and shot at the ice. Indeed, there were the Bloks.

"This is so not Van Helsing," Cassidy muttered. "These are not offspring."

She shot at one and it combusted.

"Gosh," Yumi said. "What's wrong with them?"

"They aren't expecting us until we step in the center. We haven't yet," Cassidy said.

Killing the Bloks was easy.

Taking out an already scarred Schyphozoa—half the fun. Cassidy put another bullet into the membrane of the jellyfish before it could even get close.

**-Lab-**

XANA-Jeremie made it in.

**-Lyoko-**

Aelita put in the Lyoko Code. "Tower deactivated!" she said.

**-Lab-**

The ghost left Jeremie, and he passed out.

**-Scanner room-**

Cassidy came out of that one totally exhausted. She took one look at the scanner room and blacked out.

**-Later-**

"Well, how are you two feeling?" Yumi asked, concern crossing her features.

"AY! Like a car hit my back," Cassidy didn't say it like a complaint, more like an in-pain statement. "And left me un-paralyzed!"

"Strange," Jeremie said.

Cassidy put one finger on her back and flinched. "Ow."

She couldn't exactly blame Jeremie for the pain, and she didn't.

Ulrich helped Cassidy to her feet. "Easy now."

"I remember calming Cassidy down, and she warned me of XANA's ghost, and then after that…nothing. Just a black hole," Jeremie said.

"XANA did it," Cassidy scowled. "He zapped my back and now it'll be an ugly scar for the rest of my life."

"Easy," Odd copied Ulrich.

"Luckily, XANA didn't destroy Franz Hopper's CDs this time," Cassidy said.

"This time?" Jeremie said.

"I don't know what I'm saying," Cassidy said.

**-Lyoko time; skip to the next part-**

Jeremie came out of the scanner in a great mood, but vowed not to go to Lyoko again.

"Just to monitor everyone's status and keep us on the know, right," Cassidy tilted her head to the side.

"Yep," Jeremie said.

**-That night-**

Cassidy was sleeping off her weariness and pain while Aelita was dreaming pleasantly.

"Come on, Mister Pück; go for a walk in the garden!" A little girl's voice was saying.


	14. Two Final Mixes UP!

**I'd rather say that I don't own Code Lyoko and I do own Cassidy. I'm not skipping Saint Valentine's Day. I just want to do Final Mix first.**

"I can't remember the equation," Ulrich said, ordering his drink, "The square root of a quotient equals…"

"No, Ulrich, it's: The ___quotient_ of the square roots is the ___square root_ of the ___quotient__," Cassidy helped._

"Okay," Ulrich said.

"Odd, here are some easy ways to remember the physics and chemistry exams," Cassidy listed her Cliff's Notes bit to Odd.

"Wow!" Odd smiled after Cassidy listed all she knew. "That sounds so easy!"

"Luckily I remember," Cassidy smiled.

"You remember everything," Ulrich said.

_"_Gracias, Ulrich," Cassidy patted him on the back.

"No problem," Ulrich said.

RING!

"That's my call!" Cassidy said, reaching in her pocket.

"Who could call ya? I mean, besides Jeremie, Aelita, Me, Ulrich or Yumi," Odd asked.

"My parents," Cassidy raised a brow as she put the phone to her ear. "Hi, Mom!"

"_Hey, honey," _her mom said. _"How's Kadic?"_

"Great," Cassidy was really convincing. "I've made the best friends here!"

"_That's great, sweetheart,"_ her mom sounded happy. _"Made any boyfriends there?"_

"I have one right now. His name is William," she smiled. "He's a year older than me."

"_That's awesome, honey. Hey, Scott, Cassidy's found herself a boyfriend,"_ Her mom shouted.

There was the sound of thudding footsteps. _"That's great, Cassidy."_

"Thanks, Dad," Cassidy said.

"_You're welcome,"_ her dad said.

"Listen, I'm gonna let you go. Talk to ya guys later," Cassidy said. "Love you."

"_Love you, too sweetie," _They both said.

And Cassidy hung up.

"They don't know either," Ulrich was referring to Lyoko.

"No," Cassidy said.

"Good."

Sissi then showed up. "Wow, I'm really knocked up. **(A/N: YouTube watchers and Code Lyoko fans (not me) got a real kick out of that line for God-knows-what. End A/N)** Betcha can't guess why."

"Your father said, 'ALL SYSTEMS GO' on using the gymnasium?" Cassidy asked.

"Huh, how did you know?" Sissi asked.

"Oh, just…paying undivided attention," Cassidy smiled.

Sissi was in a little shock.

One of Cassidy's spark-flashes occurred. "William may need our help!"

**-Drill time, Jim style-**

_TWEET, TWEET! TWEET!_

Jim was blowing his whistle as if his life depended on it. "Hurry it up!"

He blew on it a couple hundred times and ordered that the mats be put in the storage area and the pummel horse is up against a wall.

Someone bumped into William, making him drop the mixing board and break it. "Oh, no, I can't believe this."

Cassidy and Odd walked up to him. "Oye, William!" Cassidy smiled pleasantly.

"Hey, Cassidy," William faked a smile.

Odd was next to say something. "So it's really true, huh. The Principal gave our techno party the green light?"

"Do you think I was saying that pumpkins can be engorged," Cassidy lightly Gibbs-slapped Odd.

"'Looks like it, yeah," William sounded grim.

Cassidy tried to psyche down in front of William to assure him that she didn't know everything. It worked for Cassidy in front of William, but not in front of anybody else. Keeping her mouth shut was a breeze.

"Wow, smoking, huh? The best DJs from all the local schools'll be there. It's going to be a BLAST!" Odd was excited.

"I'm not _blasting_ anything," William said. "The mixing board is hammered. I can't figure out how to fix it."

Odd and Cassidy patted William on the back. "Hey, no problem," Odd smiled. "We'll ask Jeremie. He's Mr. Fix-it. He can fix anything."

"Or, Odd, your cousin, Aelita," Cassidy lightly reminded him. "She has experience in the repair field too."

"You think so," William asked the two.

"I know Aelita might want to. I'm not so sure about Jeremie," Cassidy had a light spark-flash.

"Yeah," Odd said.

**-The verdict, if you please-**

"No," Jeremie was typing on the breaker/antivirus program for Aelita. "I got better things to do with my time than to play around with some mixing board."

"Aelita?" Cassidy turned to Aelita, who was studying on Jeremie's bed.

"I can help," Aelita said. "I'm just like a little pink mushroom on a log at this stage."

"Would you?" Odd asked.

"Great," Cassidy smiled.

Jeremie stopped almost dead in his tracks. "Uh…but what about our research on your antivirus."

"Aelita said that she'll do it," Cassidy was half-adamant. "She might need a chance to stretch her legs. Plus, that's what you did once!"

Odd was excited. "Great, come on!"

"Right," Jeremie said, but then realized. "What about the science final? Don't you and Cassidy ever study?"

"I'm third-in-command on memory," Cassidy shouted over her shoulder. "I studied it beforehand."

"I've got the Cliff's Notes," Odd said.

Jeremie shrugged, miffed.

**-Repairs by Aelita-**

Aelita screwed in the last screw. "So then, this is the thing that makes the music?" She was interested. The only music she listened to on Lyoko—to say the least—was nothing. She was—what one might say—sheltered.

"Yep, you play the records on the turn table. The board mixes one song with another. The trick is to synchronize the sound!" Odd showed Aelita the works.

"Interesting," Aelita smiled.

"It doesn't sound like you know a whole lot about it," William said.

"She wasn't allowed music at her school in Canada," Cassidy sounded convincing. "We could say that she was sheltered."

William nodded in understanding. "Will it take much longer?"

"She's done with the repairs," Cassidy smiled.

"No," Aelita said. "I'm done."

William was revving to try it out. "Mind if I give it a try?"

He put the record on the first turn table, turned it on and smiled. He had Aelita try it first. She mixed it her way. The music was clearly amazing.

Cassidy smiled in amazement.

"Wow, I never managed to get _that_ kind of mix," William said.

"May I try, Aelita?" Cassidy asked.

Aelita nodded and handed the controls to her. Cassidy mixed it wonderfully.

"WOW!" William shouted. "These girls got talent."

Odd nodded in amazement.

Jim shut off the electricity. Cassidy looked up from the table. "Hey goof-offs. Well, don't mind me!" Jim shouted.

"We'll get out of your hair, Jim," Cassidy took off the headphones delicately and placed them on the table. "We were rehearsing for tomorrow's party."

As the four walked, William said, "Aelita and Cassidy, you two mix like pros. Where'd ya learn?"

"That was my first time," Cassidy said, "mixing like that. I never managed to do that before."

Odd covered for Aelita. "It runs in the family. We're all artists. We're creative."

William gave Cassidy a peck on the cheek. "I'll make a selection of LPs and you two can be our DJs for tonight, okay?"

Cassidy was excited and surprised. "Really?"

"Really, sweetheart," William whispered warmly to her.

"You think so?" Aelita asked. "Well, okay!"

"If Aelita says okay, then I'm in!" Cassidy smiled.

**-Aelita and Cassidy—up in Jeremie's room-**

Jeremie tried to protest but Cassidy's wit was quicker. "Aelita and I are _not_ wasting our time, and Aelita has found her special talent. She and I are going to the party. And _you are too_! You need a much-needed break."

Aelita silently cheered Cassidy on.

Jeremie gulped. When Cassidy got serious, she meant the things inside her sentences.

"Okay," Jeremie saved his progress and joined the ladies.

**-Quiz time-**

"One pen, that's all you can take in," Jim said.

Everyone had two hours of chemistry and two hours of physics. Odd didn't do origami on his, thanks to Cassidy's before cliff notes.

Sissi drew a lady with a handbag. She skived off her studying.

After the quizzes were taken in, Cassidy felt a warm flicker of pride. No one will be held back, she quickly realized, thanks to her help.

**-Teacher's locker room-**

Jim searched for Mrs. Hertz's locker and found it.

**XANA possessed him as HE had activated a tower in the desert region. A Megatank was there guarding the spiral thingy.**

**-Later that night-**

Yumi met up with Odd, Ulrich, and Jeremie. "Well," she said.

"We all made good grades," Jeremie said. "Mrs. Hertz came around to me and told me Odd's, Ulrich's, Aelita's, Cassidy's, and my test results."

"What did I get?" Odd pleaded.

"Well," Jeremie said, "you made an 80% B. You were raised two whole grades into a B."

"Great," Odd said.

"Ulrich you got a 90% A. Aelita and I scored 100%. Cassidy scored 98%. So we're all good!" Jeremie smiled.

"Hey, we've got a _real_ treat," Odd smiled. "We're going to a double feature. We're going to see Aelita the DJ and Cassidy the DJ! That will boost this into ecstasy. Where are they anyway?"

"They're already in the gym," Ulrich said. "The DJs get VIP treatment."

**-On Camera-**

Milly and Tamiya were interviewing Cassidy and Aelita. "Cassidy, a question from the school paper: as a DJ how would you define your style: Hard-core, deep-pals, or downright newbie?"

"I'm a newbie, but I think I do it my way. Same for Aelita as she has a style of her own as well," Cassidy's stomach was in deep jitters.

"Totally rad," Tamiya took the camera off her eye.

Sissi snuck out. She wasn't supposed to be at the dance. Cassidy saw this coming. She pulled out her cell phone, and called the principal. "Didn't you ban her from the dance?"

"_Yes, I did,"_ the voice on the phone said. _"She failed her exam. Why?"_

"She's at the dance," Cassidy said.

"_I'll handle this,"_ Mr. Delmas said.

So Sissi was escorted by her father out of the dance.

_Score one for my secret plan,_ Cassidy smiled.

"And now Cassidy, one of our brand-new DJs," Christophe said into the mike, "And as you're gonna see, she totally _rips_!"

Cassidy allowed the music to ride the wind. She worked it perfectly. Then she allowed a karaoke version of Poison's Ride the Wind to come in.

She grabbed a microphone and sang,

_Hearts of fire_  
_Oooh, Streets of stone_  
_Modern warriors_  
_Saddle iron horses of chrome_

_Taste the wild_  
_Lick the wind_  
_Like something they never saw before_  
_Their jaws dropping to the floor_  
_Steel made of soul and sin_

_Rebels born without a care_  
_(And the day he listens)_  
_Only to fly where eagles dare_  
_(And the night she whispers)_

_Chorus:_  
_Ride the wind_  
_Never coming back until I touch the midnight sun_  
_Ride the wind_  
_Never coming back again_  
_Ride the wind_  
_Never coming back until I touch the midnight sun_

_Painted flesh_  
_Loyalty_  
_Humble pride_  
_Just as far as the eye could see_

_Stories told_  
_To old friends_  
_Of battle scars and lonely bars_  
_And nights the rain wouldn't end_

_Here's to weathered eyes and gypsy smiles_  
_(And the day he listens)_  
_Here's to lovely ladies and a million miles_  
_(And the night she whispers)_

_Chorus_

_Ride the wind_  
_Oh, steel made of soul in sin,_  
_Burning till the night is done._

_Solo_

_Of all the truths and lies_  
_and stories of riders in the sky_  
_only the bravest try_  
_where eagles and angels dare to fly_

_Chorus_

**(A/N: I don't own the song Ride the Wind)**

The crowd went wild as Cassidy skipped down the steps. "Your turn, Aelita! The crowd's all warmed up."

William reached out to Cassidy and she took his hand. "You did great, Cassidy!"

"Thanks, William," Cassidy smiled.

"And now, Aelita, the second brand-new DJ," Christophe announced, "And, like Cassidy, she totally _rips!_"

Aelita allowed herself on the board and let the music begin. She worked the music twice as well as Cassidy did.

Cassidy walked up to her friends, who were standing awestruck. "Wow, you two are great! Ya coming, Ulrich?" Yumi said first.

Ulrich nodded. He wanted to dance too.

They both went and danced because the night was still young.

William went up to Odd. "Your cousin's incredible, Odd."

Odd nodded.

Jeremie was impressed.

William wasn't dancing, and Cassidy understood. Odd didn't. "What's up? Not dancing?"

Cassidy psyched down. William said, "No…it's not my thing!"

Odd smiled. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me. Come on! Let me see how you move."

William danced poorly. Odd regretted that choice. "Oh, you're right. It's not your thing!"

Jim walked in and zapped the electricity cable.

Cassidy knew this was coming and saved Aelita's life, getting zapped in the process. The music stopped abruptly.

Aelita knew what was going on. She was worried over her friend's sake, though. "Cassidy?"

It was uproar. "Is she okay?" a young girl named Claire Girard asked.

"I don't know," Aelita was stunned.

**-Meanwhile-**

XANA (somewhere in Sector 5) was angrier than the time his mud attack failed. "That little psychic has gone too far! She'll pay for all of this."

**-Back to the show now-**

Cassidy came out of it faster than anyone thought possible. She sat up and looked to Aelita. "Are you okay, Aelita?"

Aelita nodded.

"Good," Cassidy said.

"You gave us a real scare," Yumi crossed her arms across her chest.

"It was for the safety of Aelita," Cassidy said.

**-Tower deactivated?-**

The desert sector's only activated tower went straight to blue.

**-Jeremie's discovery-**

"There was an activated tower," Jeremie said when the Lyoko warriors were in his room.

"But what happened?" Yumi asked.

"I think I know what." Cassidy shifted from one foot to the other. "I got zapped and Aelita was the initial target, but I stepped in the way."

"And that's why the tower is not activated anymore," Jeremie said; "you interrupted the way things were supposed to happen."

"Am I in trouble?" Cassidy lowered her gaze to the floor.

"No," Jeremie smiled. "You saved Aelita's life. I think that's a job well done!"

**A/N: I'm not a DJ in real life, I just needed plot filler.**


	15. XANA swears! Saint Valentine's Day

**I don't own Code Lyoko. But I do own Cassidy = BONUS! (Cheers cheers)**

It was a peaceful night at Kadic. The cool airs of spring were just the beginning of greatness.

A man in a red jacket walked into the dorms with a shoulder-bag by his side. He was XANAfied.

Aelita and Cassidy were sleeping in their room. Aelita was having a nightmare. Cassidy was having a good first-time study dream session. The pink-haired girl was talking in her sleep.

The man placed two small, square packages on the floor—one green and red, and one orange and red.

"No…stop…let me go," Aelita said.

Aelita's computer went online, waking both girls up. "Cajas," Cassidy said.

"What?" Aelita asked.

"Boxes," Cassidy said. "I ended up confusing you and the others on Lyoko one time using Spanish. I vowed to keep my Spanish calm, but in the end it washed over me."

There was a sharp knock on the door. Cassidy went first to investigate. "Odd is that you?"

"Who's there?" Aelita asked from behind Cassidy.

"I don't know," the psychic shrugged. She looked down and immediately felt a bad vibe.

"And I'd rather not find out!"

Aelita took the boxes in. They opened them to find a glowing pink pendant and a glowing purple pendant.

_Two necklaces, different colors, glowing…_ Cassidy found the conclusion in a spark-flash.

"Aelita, they ain't from the boys. They aren't even from Yumi. It's from XANA!" Cassidy shivered.

**-XANA's Home-**

"D***," Thought our favorite virus. "Stupid, mind-blowing, sharp-shooting fox—it should have worked. She's too smart for my tricks."

**-Back to the Dorms-**

Jim caught the XANAfied man. "Hey, you! What're you doing here? No one is allowed in the dormitory without my authorization. How'd you get in here?"

The man half-hypnotized Jim and jumped on to the ceiling, crawling on his stomach, leaving a dumbstruck Jim standing in his wake.

**-Skip to the next morning-**

As Cassidy explained the dilemma, Yumi was a little suspicious. "How would XANA get in?"

"Possessed a guy who robbed a bank and then gone to the jewelry story and implanted a microchip into the necklaces," Cassidy said. "All without leaving a trace of evidence. I can prove the microchip part."

Taking the purple necklace in hand, she threw it down on the floor and half a microchip came out of the shattered remains.

**-XANA's Home Part 2-**

XANA was burning mad. That psychic meddled with the wrong computer virus.

**-Back to the Girls' Bathroom-**

The necklace that hadn't been shattered began to act strangely. It jumped for Cassidy's neck.

"So much for a Happy Valentine's Day," Cassidy muttered as she tried to get the pink necklace off.

"The day all lovers celebrate," Yumi said.

"Lovers?" Aelita asked.

Cassidy was now using the dog-scratching-a-flea method to get the necklace off. "Stupid necklace."

**-Before Cassidy does anything else worse (Cassidy: HEY!) let's head over to the next scene-**

Jeremie, Odd, and Ulrich were walking together when the girls (and a really ticked off Cassidy) arrived. "Hey, there are the girls."

"Any solutions for a stubborn necklace?" Cassidy growled.

"Scissors?" Odd suggested.

Cassidy showed a mangled pair of scissors. "Oh…"

"Pocket knife?" Jeremie said.

Cassidy showed her blade. The saw portion of the pocket knife pack had all its teeth ground off.

Jeremie flinched.

"Untie it?" Ulrich asked.

"Been there, done that!" Cassidy scowled.

They shot off suggestions until Odd suggested something weird but helpful.

"A hammer?" Cassidy cocked a brow.

"It may work," Odd was getting shy.

"Okay," Cassidy calmed down a little. "By the way, XANA gave this necklace."

That put fear into the Lyoko Warriors' hearts.

Soon they went to class.

"Ulrich, would you please use the word flip in your biology homework that _rhymes_!" Cassidy smiled.

"Okay," Ulrich smiled. She was in the plan alright.

Mr. Fumet was talking about the history of Valentine's Day, because of the occasion.

**-After class, during break-**

William gave his sweetheart a peck on the lips. "Happy Valentine's Day, Cassidy!"

"Thanks William!" Cassidy smiled. "You too."

"And, look what I got," William said sweetly as he handed her a bouquet of flowers.

"Aw, you shouldn't have," Cassidy blushed.

"Ah, but what would be Valentine's Day without flowers?" William chuckled silently.

"I think they're lovely William," she gave her boyfriend a hug, to which he blushed.

**-William and Cassidy are okay. Let's check with Yumi and Ulrich-**

Yumi was sitting on the bench when Ulrich came toward her. "Hey, Yumi, I have a poem to recite to you."

"Let me hear it, then," she smiled.

"To tell you how much I flip,  
If not with a tulip;  
How I'm a victim of your charms, and  
long to hold you in my arms;  
with you, I never feel gloomy,  
my great friend Yumi." Ulrich felt a glow of pride for he did it with a little help.

"Ulrich, that was nice," Yumi smiled. "Did anyone help you?"

"Just one person and we all know who that is." Ulrich rolled his eyes.

"We all know that she's a great help," Yumi winked.

**-Ulrich and Yumi are fine. Jeremie and Aelita?-**

They were smiling as they enjoyed the fresh air. "Happy Saint Valentine's Day, Aelita." He smiled.

She nodded. "Happy Saint Valentine's Day to you too, Jeremie."

**-Odd?-**

Odd smiled. Samantha came over and he and she were spending Valentine's Day with each other.

**-Cassidy's little trip to the john-**

**XANA was trying to possess her. She had a little hammer. He tried harder, but she was smart. She smashed the pendant and caught the microchip as it fell.**

Cassidy shook out of it.

**-XANA failed, let's see the results-**

XANA was shouting "NO!" at the top of the decibel scale. "That little s***! I was this d*** close. Stupid HAMMER!"

The tower in the ice region (which was supposed to be used) turned a light blue.


	16. Guess Who's Missing a Link!

**Code Lyoko ain't mine. Cassidy is mine. Enough has been said.**

Everyone was raring to go to Lyoko. But Yumi was missing for a little bit. "She's getting two tickets for the Subsonics concert, Ulrich, and she was having internet troubles. I know that William is faithful," Cassidy smiled.

"He is?" Ulrich asked.

"Sure is. He has never dated outside of me," Cassidy said.

"By the way, Jeremie, have you made any headway on the breaker/antivirus recently?" Aelita cocked her head to one side.

"_Well, actually it's going kind of slow. I'm missing a lot of important codes," _Jeremie said.

"But with a little luck, we'll find them today!" Odd was optimistic at best.

"And then it's ciao XANA. We'll finally be able to shut down the supercomputer," Ulrich was optimistic as well.

"That'll interrupt the storyline," Cassidy muttered to herself.

"What was that?" Ulrich asked.

"Nothing," Cassidy smiled.

**-Yumi's coming-**

Yumi was getting on her skateboard.

**-To Jeremie-**

"_We are NOT forgetting about Yumi!"_ Cassidy was adamant.

Yumi came into the elevator and down into the lab. "Hi, Jeremie, sorry I—"

"Cassidy wanted to wait for you. She insisted that we wait," Jeremie said. "Hurry up! I'll give Cassidy the news."

Yumi nodded and went down to the scanner room. Cassidy was happy.

Soon everyone was on Lyoko. "Now head for the edge of the sector, okay?"

"You got it, captain!" Cassidy said.

They ran until they spotted the Kankrelats. _"Careful, you have visitors!"_ Jeremie expressed his concern.

"Of the virtual kind," Cassidy teased.

"_Cassidy, this is not the time for jokes,"_ Jeremie said.

Cassidy sighed, a little sulky.

Everyone was fighting the army of Kankrelats when the Schyphozoa appeared.

Cassidy pushed Yumi out of the way. "Watch where you are going, Clumsy!" Yumi scowled then looked to Cassidy who was held by the Schyphozoa, then gasped.

"SUPER SPRINT!" Ulrich yelled and cut the tentacles. Cassidy fell down in a heap.

"Cassidy," Yumi was scared for her friend's Lyoko life. "Are you okay?"

"I feel sick," Cassidy mumbled.

"It scared the Kankrelats away," Odd kidded.

"Cowards," Cassidy yelled.

"_Why would they go after you? We'll abort the mission!"_ Jeremie said. _"Materialization Yumi, Materialization Odd, Materialization Cassidy."_

Yumi and Odd came out, but not Cassidy. "You must've tripped on your fingers, Einstein. Cassidy isn't here!" Odd said.

Jeremie cocked his brows.

**-Lyoko-**

"Jeremie," Cassidy said. "I think it's a—"

**-Lab-**

"I must've made a mistake. I'll reboot the program." Jeremie typed on the computer program again.

**-Scanner Room-**

"_Materialization Ulrich, Materialization Aelita, Materialization Cassidy."_

Ulrich and Aelita came out, but Cassidy didn't. "Missed again," Odd said.

Cassidy was worried.

Jeremie was too. "I can't believe it! Cassidy, I don't know what's going on! I can't devirtualize you!"

"Well this is just splendid!" Cassidy said sarcastically. "Next thing you will tell me is that The Queen of England _just_ found out about Lyoko! Now that would be a hoot!"

"_Go and hide in a tower while I figure this out!"_ Jeremie said. _"Direction, south, southeast!"_

Cassidy ran to the tower. "And you better tell Yumi to get ready for picture day!"

"_I will!"_

**-Later on-**

"Don't worry, I'll find the bug," Jeremie said to Cassidy. "You're safe in the tower!"

"_I know I am! Monsters aren't even allowed in the tower,_" Cassidy said.

"How do you know," Odd asked.

"_Why wouldn't they be able to,"_ Cassidy scowled.

Yumi went off to picture day.

"In my opinion, when the Schyphozoa attacked you, it gave you some kind of bug, Cassidy," Jeremie said.

"_Or, if you look it another way, took something from me,"_ Cassidy was getting nervous.

"That's strange," Aelita said. "It's my memory that XANA seems to be after."

"_I wasn't referring to memory," _Cassidy was shaking in the tower.

"If you ask me the Schyphozoa took something else from you. Stand still. I'm launching the digital analysis," Jeremie was sitting in the hot seat.

Cassidy did and was scanned from head to toe.

Jeremie then found the problem. "Oh, no. I don't believe it!"

"He stole my EARTH code, didn't he?" Cassidy was getting furious.

"_Yeah!"_ Jeremie wasn't prepared for the next thing Cassidy did.

"THAT RAT! He knew I would spark-flash and when I shoved Yumi out of harm's way, ARGH!" Cassidy was angry.

"_Calm down Danger Psychic; at least he didn't steal your memory,"_ Odd said.

"Yeah…Danger Psychic?" Cassidy's voice was getting in range.

"_Uh-oh!"_ Odd was in trouble now.

"Danger Psychic? You made a nickname behind my _back_ and didn't _tell me?_" Cassidy was definitely having a bad day.

"_Odd, she wasn't supposed to know!" _Ulrich said.

"YOU TOO, _ULRICH!_" Cassidy yelled. _"_Gee, just when I knew who my friends are."

**-Lab-**

"What if…?" Aelita said.

"You have an idea?" Jeremie asked her.

"I think so," Aelita said.

Ulrich and Odd were bickering over who made up Danger Psychic in the first place.

"Send me to Lyoko," Aelita said, then added, "solo!"

"What are you going to do?" Jeremie was wondering.

"Just trust me this time," Aelita seemed adamant.

"Alright, I'll bring you up close to the tower," Jeremie said.

**-Lyoko-**

Aelita was soon on Lyoko and on the Overboard. "Okay, Aelita. The tower is nearby at ten o'clock."

Aelita was on her way to the tower.

"_Watch out for monsters,"_ Jeremie expressed concern.

The pink-haired girl was on the lookout.

**-Lab-**

The two boys were still arguing at a distance away from Jeremie.

"Aelita, now will you tell me what your idea is?" Jeremie asked.

**-Lyoko-**

"No," Aelita made a turn.

**-Lab-**

Jeremie was getting suspicious.

**-Lyoko-**

Aelita got to the tower and went inside to work. _"Aelita, please tell me what you are up to." _Jeremie wanted to be in on the plan.

"There," Aelita said. "Process launched."

Cassidy on the inside flinched, but she couldn't help be curious. "What is it?"

"The process of transferring my DNA sequence code to your virtual structure," Aelita simply stated.

Cassidy cocked a brow.

**-Lab-**

"What?" Jeremie asked in a half-whisper.

Yumi came back in to find the two boys arguing. "What happened now?"

"Odd slipped Cassidy's not-supposed-to-know nickname," Ulrich said, "and it's all _his_ fault."

"Oh, yeah," Odd countered. "Then who said, 'She's not supposed to know'? Hmm…?"

"It wasn't _my fault_!" Ulrich said.

"Cassidy heard you!" Odd shouted. "And she rounded on you too."

"Are you crazy?" Jeremie asked Aelita.

**-Lyoko-**

"Jeremie, Cassidy's place is on Earth. If anyone should stay on Lyoko until we find a solution, it's me!" Aelita said.

Cassidy felt a tug at her visions, but tried to ignore it.

"_I don't agree with that. Aelita, stop it—"_ Aelita cut off the communications, cutting off Jeremie in the process.

"I knew he was going to say that!" Aelita turned to Cassidy.

"This is a big sacrifice, right?" Cassidy cocked a brow.

"Call it whatever you want to," Aelita said.

**-Lab-**

"Aelita, do you hear me?" Jeremie tried to no avail.

**-Lyoko-**

Cassidy got on her knees and tried to size up to Aelita so she could match her height perfectly. She closed her eyes.

Aelita then started the process. Products of codes were rushed in a column to Cassidy's head.

Cassidy tried to relax as this was happening. She knew what would happen, but she didn't want to stop the process abruptly.

**-Lab-**

"Aelita," Jeremie tried again. No response. "I can't believe this!"

A screen pulled up and showed what was happening to Jeremie. "I don't even know how that kind of transfer works!"

He typed on the computer. "Oh, no, this is unbelievable."

The now-three arguing friends were stalemated and were playing Go-Fish as friends again.

"Got any threes?" Odd asked.

"Here," Ulrich said, giving Odd his pair of threes.

"Great! I got a book," Odd said.

"Do you cheat, Odd," Yumi asked, "in this game?"

"No," Odd said. "I'm just plain lucky."

"Luck gets everyone," Ulrich said.

Jeremie was getting worried, scared and concerned for the fact that his sweetheart and friend were sharing codes. "GUYS!" Jeremie yelled.

Everyone threw their cards in the air in surprise. Ulrich was first to speak. "What's going on?"

"Listen to me, Aelita is on Lyoko, transferring her DNA sequence code over to Cassidy," Jeremie beckoned everyone closer to him.

"Duh, so what, you mean that's not a good idea?" Ulrich asked.

"No," Jeremie said. "Aelita doesn't know that when she transfers her code over, her memory will be exposed."

"What? Are you saying XANA will be able to steal it at will?" Ulrich raised his brows.

"That's right," Jeremie was worried. "I'm sure that's why the Schyphozoa was supposed to attack Yumi but attacked Cassidy. It's another one of XANA's little evil schemes."

"Then warn Aelita," Ulrich said. "Tell her to stop!"

"I can't. She's cut off all communication with the tower. So you've gotta get to Lyoko fast!" Jeremie said.

Ulrich and the others nodded and they went down to the scanners.

**-Lyoko-**

"Just ten more minutes before the transfer," Aelita reassured Cassidy. "Everything will be just fine."

**-Scanner room-**

"Girls! You bicker and argue for five minutes and it's mess—such a mess, such a mess!" Odd said.

Soon everyone was on Lyoko and on their vehicles. Soon they were a little closer to the tower. _"You should be able to spot the tower now!"_ Jeremie said.

Ulrich, on his OverBike, nodded. "There it is! We'll be there in a minute."

**-Let's check on things with Aelita and Cassidy-**

"Just one more minute," Aelita said.

Cassidy was tempted to open her eyes, but kept them shut. She knew what Jeremie knew.

**-Back to the Lab-**

"Hurry up, hurry up!" Jeremie was getting anxious.

The percentages were Cassidy: 75% and Aelita: 25%.

**-Tower-**

"Aelita, stop right now!"

Cassidy and Aelita opened their eyes. _Odd?_ Cassidy thought.

Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi rushed into the tower.

Ulrich was next to say something. "If the transfer takes place…"

"…XANA will steal all your memory," Yumi said.

"Aelita, stop everything, right now!" Ulrich coaxed.

Aelita was instantly swayed by this, stopped the transfer, and reconnected the communications program.

**-Lab-**

Jeremie saw with relief that Cassidy almost had 80% of Aelita's DNA sequence code and Aelita—20%.

"_Jeremie?" _Aelita's voice came back online.

"Aelita, you are so stubborn. That was a silly thing to do!" Jeremie was firm.

"_Jeremie, it wasn't Aelita's fault," _Cassidy tried to calm.

**-Back to Lyoko again-**

"I'm sorry," Aelita said, "but I thought I was doing the right thing."

"I don't blame you," Cassidy smiled, like a mother swayed by her daughter's logic after the father scolded her. "I appreciated it while it lasted."

"You're turning into a real human being," Odd smiled. "You're beginning to confuse generosity with stupidity."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Aelita wondered to Cassidy.

"Ulrich told me to psyche down!" Cassidy pointed her cat-like claw to Ulrich.

"And now I take it back," Ulrich said. "I shouldn't have said that to you. I didn't know what I was thinking."

"You thought it was annoying," Cassidy crossed her arms across her chest. "That's what you were thinking."

"Again with the reading minds thing," Ulrich frowned. "I'm sorry."

"And…" Cassidy was still not over the Danger Psychic thing yet.

"We're all sorry—Yumi, Odd, and I—for making up a nickname behind your back," Ulrich said.

Cassidy nodded.

"Anyway, we still have no idea how to save Cassidy," Ulrich said.

"Yes we do!" Cassidy said.

"What?" Yumi asked the stuck girl.

"Where do we all go to when we need something from XANA's home?" The cat-girl smiled.

"SECTOR 5!" Everyone yelled.

Soon everyone was on the fast track for the aforementioned sector.

When everyone got to the arena, it was like this:

"Ugh, it's a good thing I didn't eat breakfast this morning," Odd patted his stomach.

"Did you forget to take ginger?" Cassidy asked.

"I didn't know that we were going to this sector!" Odd defended his own.

"Okay, okay," Cassidy said. "I was just a-wondering."

"_Oh, and by the way, Cassidy, just a little detail,"_ Jeremie began.

"I know. I know. One hit equals I'm a goner," Cassidy sighed.

"_You took the words out of my mouth,"_ Jeremie said.

"That is a Meat Loaf song reference," Cassidy smirked.

"How do you know so many different artists?" Ulrich wondered.

"I was around rock 'n' roll at the age of five, and I grew to love it." Cassidy said. "I'm also into country."

"Wow," Odd said. "So that's why you sang Ride the Wind."

"Yeah," Cassidy said. "But sometimes I would forget the lyrics and try to pull them back up again."

The room stopped spinning and everyone started running.

Cassidy noticed the ceiling didn't look safe. "Booby trap challenge. Better not get devirtualized or me get hit." She shuddered at the thought.

Everyone nodded. Cassidy said, "Odd, Ulrich, you two go at a fast pace, and don't stop for anything! It isn't safe here if you know what I mean."

Odd and Ulrich ran the course but then Odd got devirtualized when he was almost there with Ulrich. Ulrich got to the key first and pressed it.

"Congratulations, Ulrich!" Cassidy smiled.

"Thanks, Cassidy," Ulrich said.

"Come on," Cassidy said. "I'd rather not _stay _on Lyoko any more than we have to."

"Right," Yumi gave her a look of sympathy.

**-Scanner room-**

Odd fainted as soon as he got out.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

The traps were lifted and the ladies met up with Ulrich and kept moving to the elevator.

"Here comes our taxi," Ulrich said.

Aelita noticed. "We better not miss it!" When it came time… "NOW!"

Everyone jumped on the elevator.

Soon Ulrich, Yumi, Aelita, and Cassidy were in the celestial dome. "Hey, Yumi how was picture day?"

"It went really fast," Yumi said. "As soon as I sat down and we got settled, the photographer snapped the picture and I was free to go."

"Okay, cool!" Cassidy said.

Aelita worked on the interface.

**-Lab-**

"Aelita, do you know where to find…"

**-Lyoko-**

"…_Cassidy's DNA sequence code?"_ Jeremie asked.

"Not really," Aelita said, "but I'll manage somehow."

"The flying Mantas' nest is about to hatch. We don't have much time left," Ulrich said. "And Cassidy, thank you for saving Yumi's life."

"De nada, Ulrich. Besides, it was like the 'incident', only better this time," Cassidy nodded.

"The nest has hatched," Yumi said.

Indeed the Mantas were there, and what was left of the Lyoko Warriors put up their fighting stances. Yumi had first crack at the first Manta and succeeded.

"_How's it going, Aelita,"_ Jeremie asked.

"Nothing yet," Aelita announced.

Ulrich deflected two lasers, but got hit with a third.

**-Lab-**

Jeremie saw.

**-Back to Lyoko again-**

Aelita was doing the best she could.

Yumi ducked to avoid a Manta. Cassidy shot at it, causing it to combust. She didn't take bragging rights. She just did it to do it.

Aelita found the code. "That's IT! I've got IT!" She was joyous. "I'm sending it to you, now, Jeremie."

**-Back to the Lab-**

"I got it, Cassidy, I'll download it back to you in a _second_," Jeremie was determined.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

"I'm so happy I'm going home!" Cassidy smiled and shot at the Manta. "YEHAW!"

Then another Manta came in and shot at Cassidy, devirtualizing her.

"CASSIDY!" Yumi and Aelita yelled together, and Yumi chucked her fan at the attacker, killing it.

**-Back to the Lab-**

"_Did you have time to insert her code?"_ Aelita was worried.

"I sure hope so," Jeremie said.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

"_You three get out of there!"_ Jeremie materialized the OverWing and the OverBike to Ulrich, Aelita, and Yumi, to which they all took.

"_The north tunnel—it's open!"_ Jeremie said.

They escaped with their lives.

**-Scanner Room-**

Aelita and Ulrich stepped out of the scanners—Then Yumi came out, seeing the still form on the floor.

"Cassidy," Yumi got to her.

"It's okay, don't worry," Aelita was happy. "She's out cold, but she's here with us!"

Ulrich and Yumi kept silent vigil by Cassidy as she woke up to see her friends. She didn't have to say a word.

"We're glad you're home, too," Yumi said.

Cassidy smiled.

**-Lab-**

Jeremie looked to Odd. "How about you Odd? How are you feeling?"

Odd groaned. "Ever been flattened by a steamroller?"

"No!"

"It's simple. Just get yourself devirtualized in Sector 5," he said dryly.

Jeremie smiled. Odd was okay, alright.

**-That night-**

Yumi, Cassidy, and Aelita were in Aelita and Cassidy's dorm room, sleeping. Cassidy didn't call the sleepover. Yumi did, feeling it was right since Cassidy could've been in shock.

Cassidy, and Yumi's parents, approved of it. Hiroki didn't.


	17. BIRTHDAY, but whose?

**This is all original! Code Lyoko ain't mine. Cassidy is.**

It was a natural spring day at Kadic. Most students were sleeping in, nestled in by the fact it was six o'clock in the morning. But one special group was _not_ nestling in for those lovely _long_ hours of needed and missing sleep. Instead it was indeed uproar in one particular room.

"Odd, NO! Put the pink streamer over to _that _corner!" A teen girl's voice—mature and now yelling at someone—yelled.

"Jeremie, is our VIP still sleeping?" Another girl's voice—a tad younger—was pricked with curiosity.

"I'll check, Aelita—Ulrich, you keep lookout in case she _does_ get up and comes down here," a boy's voice—maturing and kind.

"Still nothing," another boy's voice—a cool voice said.

"OW! Yumi, you _stomped_ on my foot," the third boy's voice was almost shrill.

"Sorry, William got in the way," Yumi's voice rang true.

"There! That's the last streamer, Jeremie!" Aelita sounded happy.

**-Let's go in-**

The room looked amazing. Streamers hung from the walls. A banner saying Happy Birthday _ _ _ _ _ _ _ **(A/N: I'll allow **_**you**_** to guess our guest of honor! End A/N)** hung in the middle. In the middle of the floor smiled six teenagers.

One of them—a boy wearing glasses and a sky-baby blue mix sweater and brown pants—said to another—a girl with pink hair, "That's great."

"Will our VIP love this?" Another boy—unusual in personality and in name—hobbled to the front to examine the team's brilliant effort.

"She'll love it," the third—a year or two older than the other two boys—smiled.

Another boy—heavily-skilled in martial arts—nodded.

"Sure she will!" Jeremie smiled. "Get ready guys, our turning-older VIP is about to get a wake-up call." He pressed a key.

**-Checking in on our VIP-**

She was sleeping when her roommate's computer flipped on and played one of her favorite songs. Emotional Fire by Cher played first, scaring the bejeebers out of the girl.

"What's going on? Aelita?" She looked to find her roommate's bed empty. "Oh, no! XANA!"

_Cassidy McGuire, please come down to Jeremie's room at once._

The recording made her jump. She quirked a brow after all was calm. _A Cher Wake-up Call, then a command. Aelita's bed is empty. What's going on?_

Thinking nothing of it, she got out of bed, put on her glasses, and went down to Jeremie's room.

She opened the door. It was very dark. Then…

"SURPRISE!" Everyone jumped out of nowhere.

Cassidy stood frozen in awe. When she unfroze two seconds later, her lips formed words and the sound came with it. "You did all this _for me?_"

"Yep!" Odd smiled. "Happy Birthday, Cat-Lover-Girl!"

The brown-haired girl blushed. "Gee, thanks!" She really appreciated it.

"And this is just the small stuff," Ulrich smiled too.

Cassidy quirked a brow. "It is?"

"Yeah," William smiled.

"But I thought this was it," Cassidy chuckled a little. "You mean there's more to it?"

"Yeah," Odd said, patting her on the back. "Come with us, but first we have to blindfold you!"

Cassidy smiled and nodded as she took off her glasses. "Okay."

Aelita blindfolded her roommate's eyes. "No peeking."

Cassidy laughed a little. "As if I would." She began to grope around until William caught her hand.

He smiled. "We'll lead you over."

Cassidy blindly nodded as William took her.

**-Soon-**

"Okay, we're here!" Ulrich said.

"Where are we?" Cassidy asked. "¿Dónde estamos?"

"A big room!" Odd smiled.

"I would like some detail, please." Cassidy tilted her head to one side.

Odd looked around the gym in mock survey. "Well, there are windows. And walls."

"Odd," Yumi winked at him, giving him either a hint or a clue.

Odd nodded and undid Cassidy's blindfold. She opened her eyes, put on her glasses, and gasped.

The gym was full of games, food, and presents. One of the games was comically named Pin-the-Nose-on-Kiwi. A big drawing of Kiwi going to the bathroom on a rock was missing a nose.

"I don't know what to say," Cassidy whispered in awe.

"How about 'thank you'," William prompted.

Cassidy nodded. "I second it."

"And there are two more surprises," Jeremie said, keeping his role in the party quite nicely. "This is a private seven-member party, and we will party until the next surprise."

"Two more surprises?" Cassidy was awestruck. "Keep this up and one of you guys will have to call the hospital for a shock patient."

"At the end though, we will have to clean this up. Principal Delmas approved it, under those conditions. You don't have to, though—you are the special Queen for today," Jeremie smiled.

"This is the greatest birthday in my life!" Cassidy squeaked.

Soon they were partying down…until Jim showed up.

Cassidy saw him and started chattering nervously. Jeremie saw this. Cassidy could speak nervously like crazy if provoked.

Jim took the birthday girl away.

"Well, if she did something wrong, she must pay for it one way or another," Odd said.

Jeremie noticed something in the gym teacher's eyes. XANA's eye symbol.

He gathered the group together and said, "Cassidy's in danger!"

"XANA?" Ulrich asked.

Jeremie nodded. "But why would he go after Cassidy? It doesn't make any sense at all."

"Unless," Odd piped a little, "he's angry at her for interfering."

"That must be it! Cassidy interfered so many times that he wants to get rid of her!" Jeremie was getting increasingly worried.

"Aw shoot," Odd interjected, "and today's her birthday for crying out loud. She'll avoid Lyoko for a month if it comes to that."

Aelita nodded. Cassidy and shock together almost always equaled avoidance from Lyoko.

Soon they left William to help set up a…thing in her room. That was their rehearsed excuse, and it played off well.

They found her with Jim, note not jabbering like an idiot, but fighting. She saw her friends and smirked. "I can sense a polymorphing clone when I see one. Odd—care to help?"

Odd nodded, smiling, and fought with the birthday girl against the clone.

Aelita and the others made it to the factory and into Lyoko, where they got rid of monsters, deactivated the tower and saved the day.

**-Later-**

"And this is from all of us," Jeremie smiled that night.

Odd presented Cassidy with a thick envelope. "It wasn't an easy thing to get. We all had to chip in and help." He smiled a small smile.

"What could it be?" Cassidy's stomach gave a tight, little squeeze of curiosity as she opened the envelope.

Seven small, rectangular pieces of paper fell out and the birthday girl quirked a brow as she picked them up and looked at them.

"Tickets…to _home_?" Cassidy whispered.

"For all of us to go with you when you go this summer. All of our parents approved it," Ulrich smiled. "You won't be alone Cassidy. And also, we would like to see your school, parents, sister, old friends—everything about Albion, Illinois."

"This is amazing," she hugged her friends and boyfriend. "Thanks for everything."


	18. Marabounta has a big problem

**Back to do more stuff with Code Lyoko's episodes. I don't own the show, but I do own my OC.**

Mrs. Hertz was giving a lesson on ants. Jeremie was super interested.

To give a Cliff's Notes version: Ants are friends/defenders/workers in the colony and they have a queen to give out orders.

Cassidy was concerned for the genius. Anything that made him interested, there was always _something_ behind it. Like when he met Kiwi. He got inspired to do Kiwi 2—a robotic Kiwi look-alike.

Cassidy didn't mind that then. But now, it sounded serious. Jeremie was looking a little too closely at the ant farm.

"What about killer ants," Ulrich asked, snapping Cassidy out of her thoughts. "Do they exist?"

Mrs. Hertz smiled a little, but still had her serious side on. "Well, yes, maybe in movies, Ulrich."

Deciding to jump in, Cassidy said, "There are African driver ants, Mrs. Hertz. They've killed animals and ate them too." She shuddered.

Sissi quirked brows.

"Why, yes, Cassidy, that is true, but they are too far away from us to kill animals here," Mrs. Hertz frowned with her student. "That, my colleagues and I are sure of, is a phenomenon called Marabounta."

Sissi was relieved. "Whew, I'm glad I live in a country that has no danger."

Odd, Ulrich, and Aelita looked to the brown-haired girl in concern.

At the end of class, Cassidy pulled Jeremie away from the farm.

**-Lunch time-**

"Saturday's my favorite day," Odd said after a mouthful of Jeremie's food. "No school in the afternoon."

"I like Sundays better—No school at all!" Ulrich smiled. Odd did too. It was nice to have someone on his side for once.

"Me, I'm in neutral territory," Cassidy said. "I like them both."

Ulrich and Odd nodded.

Aelita was concerned for Jeremie. "You seem worried, Jeremie. What's on your mind?"

"Probably on Franz Hopper's notes," Cassidy bit into her food.

"You guessed it," Jeremie said.

"And he probably has an idea for a multi-agent program." Cassidy chewed and swallowed.

"2-0," Jeremie frowned a little.

"I'll join you," she said.

He was not expecting that.

"It has to do with ants, guys," Cassidy warned the others.

"Oh, no," Odd warned the two. "You and Mrs. Hertz already bored us to tears with all that ant stuff. Don't you start now!"

Ulrich and Yumi started laughing.

"It might weaken XANA a peg or two," Cassidy pressed. "Jeremie will explain everything once we get to the factory."

Aelita stood up. "Well normally, I'd love to, but I have to finish my Italian homework. See ya!"

Jeremie and Cassidy looked to Odd. "No, I have to practice for a skateboard competition." He left.

They looked to Yumi. "Yumi?"

"Sorry, I have swimming after school. Buh-bye!" Yumi said leaving.

"Ulrich, William is faithful. I told you that, remember. She's going to be okay," Cassidy soothed.

Ulrich sighed. "Okay, I'll go!"

**-Factory business; not top secret-**

Jeremie was working on the computer with Cassidy watching, and Ulrich playing Tetrix Annihilator sitting on the floor. "Okay, here we go!" Jeremie cracked his knuckles and started typing away.

**-Pool-**

Yumi was having a fine time at the pool. Cassidy's boyfriend William did a great dive and he smiled all the way.

**-Back at the lab-**

Cassidy got bored and played a game of Go-Fish with Ulrich.

"Got any nines?" Cassidy asked.

"Only one," Ulrich passed the one nine to her.

Jeremie was working on his new program that Cassidy talked about at lunch.

"Okay, do you have any aces?" she asked.

"Go Fish!" Ulrich said.

"Shoot," Cassidy grabbed another card. "Ooh, the last nine in the deck!" she put her book down.

"Do you use your powers when you play this game?" Ulrich got concerned.

"No, they turn off," Cassidy said truthfully.

"Weird," he said. "If Jeremie were to press six instead of seven…"

"The same effect that happened to me would happen to him instead," Cassidy said.

"And if I was cold to Yumi the first day we met…"

"Yumi would say, 'Well, nice to meet you, too!' in a cold tone toward you and you would be long gone. And you wouldn't even know her name!"

"And if you didn't warn me of Odd's arrival…"

"Sissi would have bugged you like heck," Cassidy shook her head.

"If Jeremie didn't name Aelita her _real_ name…?"

"She would have been called 'Maya', and she wouldn't know her real name until she deactivated the first activated tower."

"But when you play a card game…"

"They turn off."

"Now for the moment of Truth—everything seems to be working. Transfer: Prototype; Scanner; Virtualization!" Jeremie was having some hidden enthusiasm.

**-Lyoko's forest region-**

A black orb appeared in the area's air.

**-Lab-**

Jeremie looked on, letting out a small grunt. "Come on!"

**-Lyoko-**

Mara started to reproduce.

**-Lab-**

"Did it work, Jeremie?" Cassidy asked.

"Yeah, Franz Hopper, you are a genius, and so am I," Jeremie said. "XANA's monsters better watch out now!"

"I'll call Odd," Cassidy nodded and picked up her Motorola T725 to dial Odd's phone number.

After, she called Aelita's phone number, and they soon came to the factory, Kiwi in Odd's arms.

"Ah, there you are," Jeremie said.

Cassidy and Ulrich picked their card game up and put it away.

"What's this program?" Aelita asked.

"Jeremie's Multi-agent system, Marabounta. Mara for short," Cassidy said. "It weakens XANA, and we get to the tower in peace. But Mara has its bad point; it—"

"Enough with that," Odd massaged his temples. "You give me a headache giving us stuff like that."

"Sorry!" Cassidy reddened.

"Odd, remember, Cassidy's power is the one that makes her blurt out. She can't psyche down," Ulrich gave him a medium Gibbs-slap.

"I know that, I just don't like it when she gives long speeches like that," Odd growled a little.

"Not my fault!" Cassidy jumped in and shouted.

"STOP IT GUYS!" Jeremie's voice was the loudest.

It was dead silence. Jeremie continued, "I don't like it when you two or _however_ many of you guys argue about Cassidy's power. It is here to stay! Deal with it. We had plenty of episodes where her power was needed and was provided for us to use. So stop the arguments."

Cassidy breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you Jeremie."

"You are welcome," Jeremie said. "Anyone want to go to Lyoko?"

Odd, Ulrich, Aelita, and Cassidy eagerly agreed.

"Okay, get to the scanners," Jeremie smiled.

Aelita got a little worried. "If there's the slightest problem, I'll pull the plug, I promise." Jeremie nodded calmly.

Aelita nodded a little and went down with her comrades to get virtualized.

They soon were on Lyoko.

A Krabe walked by. "Let's follow it!" Cassidy smiled wickedly. "Let's see its death."

Everyone followed the Krabe and saw a lot of monsters' demises. A Tarantula had got its laser leg trapped. Four hornets got sprayed with the black spheres. A Megatank got stuck closing its ammo hold.

**-Pool-**

"Shall we go? I'm getting cold," Yumi said.

William nodded and they showered, got dressed, and left.

Yumi was happy that she got to go swimming. It left her in a great mood. However, it was also tiring.

She went home.

**-Lyoko-**

"Save your sympathies, Odd," Cassidy said. "This, I feel, might not end well if it comes to it."

Odd was about to open his mouth when Ulrich wielded his sword threateningly. "Say one wrong word to her and you are back to the scanner room _in a heartbeat_."

Aelita gave Jeremie a visual.

"_It's working even better than I thought it would,"_ Jeremie mused.

Odd kept his mouth shut.

Aelita got scared. "Jeremie, I've—seen enough. I want to come in!"

Jeremie understood.

"A tower's not too far from here," Cassidy said. "Let's go!"

They were about to go when Aelita was surrounded by the spheres. "Help!"

Cassidy turned her tube into a gun and shot at it, freeing Aelita in the process. "Jeremie, I think Mara has ASTIGMATISM and OCD at the same time!"

"_This is no time for jokes, Cassidy. I programmed it to attack XANA's monsters only!" _Jeremie sounded serious.

"I'm telling you _the truth_ here, Einstein. GOD! Listen to me. Aelita is connected by that horrible link/virus and Mara seems to think Aelita is another one of XANA's monsters. GOD! Even _when_ I sound serious, you think I'm _joking_!" Cassidy said. "And that's what I was trying to explain to you, Odd and Ulrich, but we just _had _to have that stinkin' argument."

"Oh," Odd and Ulrich said together, in shame as they were running.

Jeremie was feeling conflicted. What was thought to be a good idea suddenly turned out to be a bad one.

He tried to pull the plug as promised, but couldn't.

"_Jeremie, calm down, we'll need some extra back-up and then we'll fight Mara like we do XANA,"_ Cassidy said.

"What will XANA do?" Jeremie asked.

"_Defend us and Aelita?"_ Cassidy squeaked a bit.

He looked to the computer as if it would explode.

"_I'm not kidding!"_ she snarled.

Jeremie called Yumi.

**-At Yumi's house-**

Yumi was studying when Jeremie called. "Jeremie?" A long pause and then…"Huh? What are you talking about? What do you mean, a Chattanooga?"

**-Back to the Lab-**

"Marabounta," Jeremie said. "I can't explain now! Just get here…"

**-Back to Yumi's place-**

"…_ASAP!"_ Jeremie's voice came on the other line.

Yumi nodded.

**-Back to the Lab again-**

"Odd, Cassidy, Ulrich, and Aelita are in big trouble."

**-Back to Yumi's place-**

"I'll be right over!" Yumi promised.

**-Lyoko-**

Odd, Ulrich, Aelita and Cassidy stopped. "Hey," Odd said. "Jeremie, I think we lost your monster."

"I'm sensing it's still right behind us, but it's too far away to tell right now," Cassidy showed a worried look.

"Now we're kinda lost ourselves," Odd said.

"_I uh, sorry guys, take off in the direction…due west. The Marabounta hasn't hit that sector yet. In the meantime, I'll find a way to stop it."_

"Don't blow it, okay. I don't wanna end up as chewing gum!" Odd commented.

"That's impossible. Mara can devirtualize you, not reduce you to an already massacred piece of gum," Cassidy said.

Everyone headed in that direction. It turned out "Mara" already hit where they were heading.

Everyone backed up out of the way.

"We can't reach the tower, Jeremie. Mara already got here. Tenemos mala suerte. We have bad luck!" Cassidy said.

"How do you know Spanish?" Ulrich asked. "You talk normal in public yet you slip phrases to us."

"My Spanish teacher—Mr. Balding—taught me before I came here. I was as eager as Jeremie when he has the answer to a question to the questions and repeat phrases. I passed my tests and worksheets like a pro. He liked my enthusiasm."

"Okay," Ulrich said.

"_This won't take me long. I'll find a way to stop it I promise,"_ Jeremie said. _"And Yumi is on her way!"_

"Okay," Cassidy nodded.

Cassidy, Ulrich, and Odd decided to defend, which was a good idea, and tried to hold back "Mara".

Aelita was then surrounded by it. _"Careful, XANA's sending a monster!"_

"He's helping us, Jeremie!" Cassidy said, shooting a bazooka missile at "Mara".

A Krabe materialized onto Lyoko, landed, and extended its leg to Aelita. Aelita wasn't sure what it wanted, but then she grabbed it and was flung to safety.

Odd caught her. "That's crazy. That Krabe just sacrificed itself for you!"

"What's going on?" Ulrich asked Cassidy.

"XANA wants Aelita alive as well as we do, but for different reasons as we. He wants Aelita's memory, but we want her to enjoy Earth life as long as possible," Cassidy said.

"They're protecting me," Aelita mused with a smile.

"_Aelita and Cassidy are right!"_ Jeremie said. _"Use them as allies to defeat the Marabounta."_

"Okay, Jeremie," Cassidy nodded. "And Guys—" she meant Aelita, Odd and Ulrich—"Yumi's on her way!"

**-Lab-**

Yumi came in. "Ah, at last!" Jeremie said.

"Mind telling me what's going on?" Yumi asked.

"No time, go straight there," Jeremie was worried.

**-Lyoko-**

Odd laser-arrowed his way. Cassidy shot her guns/weapons. And Ulrich was working on slicing and dicing "Mara".

Yumi was then transferred onto Lyoko. She was about ready to disintegrate a Blok, when Cassidy came up to her and pressed Yumi's fan to her chest. "XANA's helping us, and I know that sounds like this world is upside down, but believe me. If the world was upside down, Jeremie wouldn't be resident genius and Odd would."

Yumi nodded and Cassidy let go. "The main enemy right now is not XANA, but Mara—the Marabounta." She pointed at the black spheres.

"How are you doing, Jeremie," Aelita asked.

"_I'll never make it. I'm probably the biggest loser to ever walk the face of the Earth!"_ Jeremie's voice was sad.

"Hey, that's no way to talk!" Cassidy said. "My mom has a saying back in America and that is I-CAN. The word American has I-CAN not I-CAN'T at the end! When you did the materialization program, you never gave up or gave in. You allowed yourself to work day and _night_ for it. You never gave up. And YOU CAN DO IT BECAUSE WE BELIEVE IN YOU LIKE YOU BELIEVE IN US!"

Odd and Ulrich ceased fire for a little bit to look at the cat-girl, like Whoa.

Jeremie felt even more confident for that pepped him up.

"That was beautiful, Cassidy," Yumi said.

"Thank you Yumi!" to Jeremie she added, "And could you load a virus program into one of my ammunition?" Cassidy asked sweetly to the air.

"_YEAH!"_ Jeremie yelled.

"Alright! That's the proper attitude!" Cassidy smiled. Then she walked up to a Krabe. "You and I will have to work together on this one. I get on your back and we trudge through Mara like a horse in mud. We have to get to the queen. I'll shoot with a scope. And we'll terminate Mara once and for all!"

The Krabe seemed to nod as it allowed Cassidy on its back.

Odd barked an order. "Whatever you do, don't let it make any headway. It'll attack from the rear."

Yumi came up to him. "You're a really good combat general, Odd."

"It takes strategy, you know. The only thing stupider than a Blok, is two Bloks."

"_Okay, Cassidy, the virus is in, and you know what to do!"_ Jeremie said.

"Let's just hope that we get out of this alive," Cassidy said.

"We will," Aelita called from below.

"Thanks Aelita."

"Hi-ho Krabby!" Cassidy bellowed.

The Krabe stopped abruptly.

"Sorry."

The Krabe then moved again into the spheres. It got to the queen. Cassidy did too. She didn't do any pithy quotes, she aimed and shot.

Lyoko was clean as a platter.

**-Later on, back on Earth—Cassidy and Aelita's dorm-**

"And so, the brave warrior, determined to make his lady his, totally humiliates himself, taking a misstep and falling face first into the pool," Cassidy said in story.

Everyone gasped.

"_But_ with a little help from his lady's good friend, he was able to walk away from it!"

Aelita smiled. "You tell good stories, Cassidy."

Everyone agreed.

"It's all in the story, guys. It's all in the story!"


	19. This is a load of Common Interest!

**Don't own Code Lyoko. Own Cassidy.**

**-The Day before all Hell seeped through the Cracks…-**

Jeremie was working on Aelita's breaker/antivirus when Cassidy walked in.

"Hey, Cassidy, what's up?" he asked.

"Jeremie, I—have something to tell you! It's urgent!" She sounded scared.

"Okay!" said Jeremie, pausing in his work, taking his shoes off and getting on the bed. Her expression looked worried. "What is it?" he asked.

Cassidy made sure Jeremie's room was soundproofed before she started to speak. "It's Aelita!"

"She hasn't begun having visions again, has she?"

"No. _I_ began having visions about _her_ at a hospital. HN's **(A/N: HN's are my [and others'] way of saying hypodermic needles. You could say I'm uncomfortable to saying the word. End A/N)** and CPR methods are on her. Jeremie, I fear her dying," said Cassidy. "Tomorrow's the day! My vision has grown stronger with each passing day and last night it came at its strongest!"

"Are you crazy? I saw her yesterday. She's fine!" said Jeremie, proudly on defense.

"I'm serious!"

"How many visions of yours have come true?" Jeremie crossed his arms in front of his chest.  
"Partly none because I spent all my time _preventing bad things from happening_! Jeremie, listen! Aelita's life is on the line!"

"What's one bad thing, then? Tell me!"

"Remember when Aelita was materialized? I prevented the ONE adult _in the world_ from finding out, Jim! If it weren't for me, you would have spent 45 minutes away from the supercomputer!"

"How would he have found out?"

"You would have told him!"

"I would not!"

"Not if you were in the infirmary with a broken ankle and had no other way to get there! Jim would have been your only choice!"

Odd opened Jeremie's door, Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita came with, and saw Cassidy and Jeremie brewing up a battle. "…And if it weren't for me, Jim would have found out!" Cassidy yelled. Jim happened to walk by. _I would find out about what?_ He thought to himself.

"I wouldn't have trusted him for the world!"

"Face it, Jeremie! Your girlfriend's dying, and you won't handle the truth! Wait until the math test tomorrow! Then you'll see!"

Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi gasped in surprise and shock. Aelita, agape at what she had heard, sidestepped to Jeremie's bed. "Holy mackerel!" shouted Milly with a camera in her hand. "This sounds like an interesting scoop!"

Surprised, Cassidy looked up to see some bewildered and familiar faces. "Sorry, folks," she told Milly and Tamiya. "Just a little disagreement. What I meant by 'your girlfriend's dying,' I meant my friend is flying, right Jeremie?"

"Right," said Jeremie, all signs of the fight gone.

"And Jim would have found out about my friend," said Cassidy, covering the fight with something better. "But Jeremie said that Jim wouldn't allow me to have my friend fly!"

"I WOULD SO!" shouted Jim.

"Honest mistake, Milly and Tamiya," said Cassidy as the two girls left.

"What in the hoosegow!" Jim said.

"Oh don't worry about it, Jim! Now, go do your exercise like you always do!" said Cassidy.

"Okay," said Jim as he ran to the gymnasium.

"Holy mackerel, indeed!" Odd smiled devilishly. "You sure had those three on the run!"

"Oh, come off it Odd," said Cassidy.

"I didn't know what you were talking about when I walked in to borrow Einstein's laptop!" said Odd **(A/N: Odd's internet dating)**.

"Cassidy claims that a certain person is going to the hospital tomorrow!" said Jeremie, careful not to let the mystery person slip.

"That's because my vision is telling me that tomorrow's the day of the event! It even said so in the calendar of my dream!" Cassidy held onto the subject.

"That's for sure," deadpanned Jeremie.

"I'm not 'talking Indonesian' here! I'm serious!" said Cassidy.

"My WORD!" shouted Yumi. "Can't you two BEHAVE when you can?"

"Unfortunately, Jeremie and I are like cat and dog, night and day, two library books and a salami roll!"

Odd nearly cracked up at the "two library books and a salami roll" part. Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita showed looks of confusion.

**-The next day on Lyoko-**

A tower in the ice region turned red. A couple of Tarantulas were guarding it.

**-Police-**

A police transport van was transporting a criminal to prison.

"_HQ Transfer calling Car Alpha!"_ the radio said.

A hand picked up the walkie-talkie. "Car Alpha, go ahead."

"_In three miles you'll meet up with Escort 2 as planned!"_

The van passed an electric fence which sparked and XANA came out.

**-Back to the van-**

"Copy that," said the policeman, and then added to the convict in the back compartment, "You happy to be going home, huh, Duncan?"

"I don't talk to cops so save your breath," a gruff voice answered.

"Typical, that's what you get trying to be nice," breathed the policeman and he put up the walkie-talkie.

Duncan grunted in his cuffs. XANA came in fluid-like into his ear. Duncan was surprised. He didn't know that he was becoming XANA's puppet. He let out a few yelps and went unconscious.

"Duncan, hey Duncan, what's going on? What's up?" the policeman was getting worried. He turned to the policewoman, "Pull over, he's had some sort of attack."

She put her foot on the brake and the van stopped. The policeman got out and walked to the back to check on the convict. The policewoman got out the walkie-talkie. "Car Alpha to HQ Transfer!"

"_Go ahead Car Alpha!"_

He opened the doors. "Duncan, hey, you okay? What's going on here?"

The bespectacled opened his eyes and with his newfound strength broke out of his cuffs, causing the policeman to gasp.

The policewoman was still talking to HQ Transfer. "Starting Procedure 3: Momentary stop to assess the situation."

There was a scream from the policeman as his head went through the tiny window. The policewoman was shocked. "HEY!"

Duncan jumped on top of the hood.

"_Roger Car Alpha! Standing by for information!"_

She looked up in fright, dropping the walkie-talkie.

"_Car Alpha, what's going on? Come in please, Car Alpha!"_

The eye symbol in his eyes was menacing.

**-Let's check in on the Lyoko Warriors now-**

Two kids played soccer while Ulrich expressed his concern. "Peter Duncan escaped from a police transport van without _any_ outside help?"  
"I read it in the newspaper," Cassidy piped up. "It seemed to hit the screamer today. Get this: Peter Duncan Escapes Unaided. Police Unconscious."

"And that's what they said on the radio," Yumi was getting her drink.

"Ya know, ever since David Copperfield made the Statue of Liberty disappear, nothing surprises me anymore, heh!" Odd said.

"What bothers me is the two police officers who were guarding him talked about a supernatural force," Yumi came out of the vending machine room.

"You think XANA is involved?" Ulrich grabbed his sides as if he was about to hurl, which the samurai didn't feel like doing, and wasn't feeling it.

"Not a chance!" Jeremie came up the way, Aelita in tow. "The super-scanner didn't detect any activated tower, I just checked."

"Now that's just weird. The doble ese doesn't show any ah te and a criminal escaped a police transport van. That makes a connection, point blank. We have to do something," Cassidy said.

"I hope you're right," Yumi said. "Imagine Public Enemy #1 under XANA's control. Talk about double trouble."

Odd perked up. "A public enemy? What does this Duncan guy do?"

Jeremie came in. "Oh, nothing much. Great art theft, safecracking, kidnapping, bank robberies…" Aelita grabbed her head in pain and dropped her bag.

Cassidy's insides whirled.

"You okay Aelita?" Yumi asked.

"Yes, I—I just didn't get any sleep last night," Aelita recovered.

"And it wasn't my fault," Cassidy said.

Aelita picked her bag up as the bell rang.

"Don't forget, we have a math test. You going to be alright," Jeremie showed his concern (_Very wise, Jeremie,_ Cassidy thought). Would the psychic be wrong for _once_ in their adventures, or would she be right?

"No problem!" Aelita said.

**-Forest-**

Peter Duncan was displacing himself from tree to tree, all without taking a step, the blatant XANA symbol in his eyes.

**-Test time-**

"As you all know, this test covers the principles of division. I hope you've studied hard," Mrs. Mayer said.

Odd smiled, because he had Cliff's Notes again. Cassidy was really good at helping him. He didn't even ask Ulrich for the last digit of the power divisible by two.

Mrs. Mayer got worried after Odd was making good grades by not cheating. What was going on with Odd? Was he okay? Most questions would never be answered.

Jeremie got done with his test at the same time Cassidy put down her pencil. They both were great students. And so was Aelita. She was exceptional.

"Well, Jeremie, Cassidy," Mrs. Mayer asked the two at their different tables, "is there a problem?"

Cassidy was across from Jeremie and Aelita.

"We've finished, Senora," Cassidy said.

Mrs. Mayer took the tests away to look at them. "I see; good work! Excellent in fact, you two!"

There were collective groans and gasps of annoyance. Those two could finish anything in record time.

Odd, Ulrich, and Aelita nodded their approval at the two.

The two look up in pride.

**-Oh, no-**

Duncan grabbed his head and fell to his knees.

** -Things aren't getting better-**

Aelita grabbed her head and started moaning in pain.

"Jeremie," Cassidy whispered.

Jeremie took Cassidy's lead. "Aelita, you okay?" **(A/N: Does anyone ever notice that when the camera settles on Jeremie's side, he has a pink pencil that matches Aelita's jumper and when it settles to Aelita's side, the pencil disappears? Either someone **_**else **_**noticed, or I'm just crazy! End A/N)**

**-Back to Duncan-**

The escaped convict yelled out in pain, his hands at the pain site (the head). His closed eyes opened and the XANA symbol disappeared. All that was left in his eyes were white.

He collapsed on his back unconscious.

**-Back to school-**

"AELITA!" Jeremie and Cassidy yelled together as the said girl collapsed.

The rest was in an uproar.

Jeremie looked to Cassidy with his eyebrows raised. She was right, again, but would she predict the verdict.

**-Hospital trip-**

Aelita's life was slipping as she was driven to the hospital.

As the drivers got in, a doctor ran out, putting on a stethoscope. "Okay, what do we got?"

The paramedic listed the patient as followed: "Adolescent, thirteen years old, unconscious, very weak pulse, irregular heartbeat."

The doctor grew concerned. "Put her in Bed 1."

Jeremie and Cassidy followed them until they got to Emergency. That's where they stopped.

"What's the verdict," he asked her.

"She'll flat-line, but she'll get up to norm, I promise you no more," she said.

Jeremie nodded.

**-ER-**

_Beep, beep, beep, beep_

"She's going into fribullation," the first doctor said.

"Ten mills of injection," the elderly, more experienced doctor deftly put it into Aelita's IV.

The heart monitor was still going down. "Heart's failing!"

The injection didn't work.

"She's going down. Cardiac unit," the second doctor said.

As the second doctor got the bed ready, the first one went up to the paddles.

As soon as they were ready, the doctor said, "CLEAR!"

The shock went through her, but she flat-lined. "Nothing," breathed the second doctor.

"CLEAR!" The first doctor said.

BEEP

The doctors were baffled.

**-Forest-**

Duncan woke up and sat up.

**-ER-**

_BEEP!_ _Beep, beep_

Aelita's heart came up to normal ranges. The doctors were relieved.

"That kid's got a real guardian angel, that's for sure," the second one nodded.

Aelita woke up.

**-Waiting room-**

"That's who the mystery person is?" Ulrich's eyebrows were so high up on his face that he had a hard time getting them to relax.

Cassidy nodded.

"That's what you've been dreaming about for days, too?" Yumi asked. "Why didn't you tell us a few days in advance?"

Cassidy's eyes shut. "Because we were busy and I couldn't tell you guys, because we were so busy with everything. The Schyphozoa attacking me, the necklace, finals, DJing, getting our vehicles, discovering Sector 5, Mara, everything I had an opportunity to tell you with, we were busy with one thing or another."

The doctor came in.

Jeremie was worried. "So, how is she?"

"She's fine, don't worry. She'll be alright, but it's an extraordinary case," he said.

"Can we see her?" Yumi asked.

"I don't see why not. But not too much noise. She needs to rest." The doctor put on his stethoscope to check another patient.

"Don't worry, doctor, everybody knows I'm quiet and calm!" Odd said.

Cassidy rolled her eyes. _Yeah right! He'd probably yell if provoked._

**-Hospital Room-**

"How are your test results," Yumi asked Aelita.

She checked. "Completely normal."

Cassidy was then hit with another vision of Aelita. _How many of these visions will I have?_ She asked herself constantly. Her next constant question was: _Will I have any relief?_

"Maybe it's got something to do with the fact that you're not really human!" Ulrich said.

"Ulrich, Aelita _is_ human. If she wasn't, she would be something besides a human. And no. An AI who _feels,_ has _emotions_, and could do routine tasks—mixing music, cleaning one's room—is obviously _human_," Cassidy held her ground nicely, just didn't yell.

"It could be the link/virus that XANA implanted in me," Aelita said.

"Find anything, Jeremie," Yumi turned to Jeremie.

"Dead calm as far as XANA is concerned. No activated towers. Although, the super-scan seems to have reset itself, it's not getting the right results!" Jeremie was typing on the super-scan.

"I guess it didn't study," Odd sighed.

"No class for me this afternoon. I'm going to pay a little visit to the factory to check it out," Jeremie said.

Ulrich put his arm around Odd and pointed to Cassidy. "We'll go with you!"

Cassidy's heart sunk. "What? I want to stay!"

"Ulrich you don't force a person to go with you if she or he doesn't want to," Jeremie said. "Cassidy wants to stay, it's her choice."

"We'll stay here," Yumi pointed to Cassidy as soon as Ulrich set his finger down. "We could have a girl-to-girl-to-girl talk for once."

Aelita showed a full crested smile.

**-To the Uranium Truck-**

It was rolling along the road.

**-To the three Lyoko boy warriors-**

They got into the sewers and went to the factory.

**-Back to the Uranium Truck-**

It made a turn to find Peter Duncan standing in the middle of the road.

"What the—? This guy's crazy!" The driver said.

Duncan was prepared thanks to his XANA-intelligence.

The driver tried to brake, but the vehicle didn't obey. The convict ghosted under the truck and around to the back. The truck stopped then. He opened the door with an easy to follow code. (123456, then check) Guards aimed their guns. "Don't move," ordered one.

"Put your hands in the air," barked another.

Duncan didn't and incapacitated the two.

The driver, who was unconscious for a little bit, woke up and heard the noises, frightful of what was happening back there. He grabbed his gun, got out of the vehicle and sidled to the back. "HANDS UP!" He ordered.

All he saw was the two unconscious men and an empty slot where the Uranium cell was supposed to be.

**-Back to the Lyoko boys-**

The super-scan was setting and resetting itself. "That's exactly what I was afraid of!" Jeremie was typing on it again and again.

"What?" Ulrich asked.

"The super-scan bugged up. I'll find out why in a minute," Jeremie said.

"The real question is can you fix it?" Odd asked.

"Well, normally yeah, but the debugging phase takes time. I don't know if it's a minor bug or something more serious—" Jeremie was talking a mile a minute.

"Okay, okay, if XANA's activated a tower, we'll find it much faster by going directly to Lyoko. Ya coming Ulrich," Odd asked.

Ulrich agreed and went with him. Jeremie transferred the two to Lyoko.

Ulrich looked around the ice sector. "All clear here. We're going to have to search all the sectors."

"_Don't panic; I'm calling up your vehicles, guys!"_ Jeremie said.

In a flash, the guys' vehicles showed up. They got on their vehicles and set off to find the activated tower.

"Jeremie, how's it going with the super-scan?" Odd asked.

"_Not too great!" _Jeremie replied.

Odd was looking forward. "Well, anyway, you might as well forget it." Then his eyes found something. "No, wait! We found it!"

"Activated tower, dead ahead," Ulrich said.

"_Right, I got it,"_ Jeremie said. _"Twenty-five degrees north, northeast. Nice job, you guys!"_

"Now, all we gotta do is bring Aelita here to deactivate it," Ulrich said, stopping on his OverBike.

**-Lab-**

"Okay, I'm bringing you in!" Jeremie was about to when the holo-sphere disappeared. "That's great! Now what's up?" he looked to his left. Then the computer shut off. "Oh, no!" Jeremie tried to contact his friends. "Can you hear me? Hey! Ulrich, Odd!"

**-Lyoko-**

"Jeremie, not that we are in a rush, but uh—Jeremie, ya taking your time there. Jeremie?" Ulrich tried to contact him.

Odd saw a good opportunity to joke. "Must've forgotten to pay his phone bill!" he cracked a grin.

**-Back at the Hospital-**

Cassidy and Aelita were laughing. Yumi continued, "Right. The funniest part is, Hiroki says to my father, 'Papa, when I grow up, I wanna look just like you…but with _muscles._'"

Cassidy snickered. Aelita chortled a little, then she flat-lined.

"Aelita?" Yumi said.

Cassidy pushed the button on the side of Aelita's bed. "We need help! Necesito ayuda!"

**-To Duncan-**

Duncan collapsed and the battery rolled unharmed to a root, but didn't shatter.

**-To Jeremie-**

"What's wrong with this _darned_ supercomputer?" Jeremie took the elevator down to the super-calculator room.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

"Uh, Jeremie, are you going to bring us _in_ or not?" Odd asked.

"We'll have to manage without him. Get ready!" Ulrich got his katana out as Odd cocked his arm.

"One…two…three," Odd said.

Ulrich swung out with his sword as Odd shot two arrows from his arm.

The arrows hit Ulrich as his sword cut into Odd's shoulder.

They both didn't devirtualize.

Ulrich picked up his sword, the virtual snow crunching under his knees. Odd was shocked. "We—we can't be devirtualized!"

"The scanners must be offline. What is going on around here anyway?" Ulrich sheathed his sword.

"I have no idea, but we got a _real_ problem!" the ninja frowned.

"That's the understatement of the year," the samurai frowned with him.

**-Back to Jeremie-**

Jeremie went up to the power switch and tried rebooting it. "Ugh, this is really _bad_!"

**-Back to Lyoko-**

Lyoko started to disappear.

Ulrich saw this. "Huh, what is that?"

"If Cassidy were here, she would have said something in her way," Odd said. "But how about a gigantic invisible eraser?"

The disappearing ice was getting closer. "Let's get outta here!" Ulrich said getting to his OverBike. "Jeremie, do something fast, huh, before it's too late."

They got on their vehicles and got moving.

The activated tower disappeared.

**-Back to Jeremie-**

He tried to get the supercomputer running. "Come on! Start up will you!"

**-Back to Odd and Ulrich's dilemma-**

"Jeremie, can you hear us?" Odd asked. "We have a big bug here!" He noticed Ulrich's OverBike disappearing.

"AH—HELP!" Ulrich yelled.

Odd corkscrewed his OverBoard and saved him.

"Thanks," Ulrich said.

Odd was about to say "You're welcome", when his vehicle disappeared too. "Huh? NO!"

They both hurtled into the digital sea, screaming all the way.

** -Back to Aelita's situation-**

The doctors were doing CPR on Aelita, as Cassidy and Yumi watched with anxiety.

Cassidy was then hit with a different vision. Aelita would get back up to normal ranges.

She whispered to Yumi about it, and she understood.

The doctors were trying their best to revive Aelita.

**-Jeremie-**

Jeremie was finally able to get the supercomputer online. "Whew, finally!"

**-Lyoko with the boys -**

Lyoko reappeared, saving the boys' lives. Ulrich and Odd grabbed the ice, and picked themselves up.

Ulrich and Odd looked around. "Looks like Lyoko recharged its batteries."

**-Back to Aelita, Cassidy, and Yumi-**

Aelita's heart got up to the norm again.

"In all my years as a doctor that is the first time I've ever seen that!" said the elder doctor.

Aelita opened her eyes.

**-Back to Duncan-**

He reawakened, picked up the battery, and went on his way to the factory.

**-Jeremie-**

"Hey, we're doing okay!" he looked to the battery. "Oh, no. The nuclear battery's going dead!"

**-Hospital, everyone included-**

They were in a cell phone friendly area. Cassidy was given the spotlight. "The energy in the nuclear battery is almost gone, and the supercomputer will keep failing until it'll be all dead."

"Is that all? Then we just have to change the battery," Odd said.

"Not so easy, Odd. There is no back-up battery, and we can't buy one in a drugstore," Cassidy said. "XANA is dying."

"And so is Aelita, and all on account of that miserable link/virus," Jeremie finished.

Everyone was getting depressed.

"I'm gonna get something to drink," Jeremie was grief-stricken.

"I'll get something too," Cassidy's eyes were filling up with tears.

So the two went to get a drink.

**-Going into Aelita's room-**

Aelita didn't hear the whole thing, so she didn't know what was going on.

"Hey, Princess, is this the best TV set they could find?" Odd asked.

"Well, yeah, Odd," Aelita cocked a brow. "Why?"

"Oh, nothing," Odd cocked his goofball grin, but there was something sad behind it.

"Odd, what's going on?" Aelita was getting concerned.

"Nothing, Aelita," Ulrich covered Odd. "He's just joking around as usual."

**-Back to the depressed duo-**

Cassidy's tears dripped into her tea. She was going to lose a friend, a roommate, and a person she swore to protect at the same time. Her heart felt bulldozed in two, flattened with a steamroller, crushed with a hammer, bitten by a radioactive spider, and then smashed with a hammer…again.

Jeremie rubbed his hot chocolate. He was going to lose his princess, his sweetheart, and a person he swore to protect. His heart felt the same as Cassidy's, sans bitten by the radioactive arachnid.

Peter Duncan came up. Cassidy sprung on him and poured her salted-tea on his head.

"Take that XANA!" She sniffled, and then sprang back into her seat.

Duncan was unaffected by this, and grabbed Cassidy. Jeremie watched in horror.

**-To Aelita's room-**

Jeremie walked in with Yumi. "Cassidy's been kidnapped by Peter Duncan!" Jeremie announced.

Ulrich looked worried. "He lived up to his crime? That can't be good!"

_BEEP!_

Aelita's heart flat-lined again.

Yumi got worried. "Aelita!"

Odd's cell phone rang. "Hello!"

**-Lab-**

"Odd, it's me," Cassidy panted in the hazmat suit. She was scared.

**-Hospital room-**

"Cassidy, what's going on? Aelita had another attack, thank you very much!" He practically yelled into the phone.

**-Cassidy-**

"I'm going to save Aelita's life in a minute, and I shut down the supercomputer."

**-Odd-**

"You did WHAT?" Odd yelled, in his "Jim will KILL US!" voice. "Jeremie's going to expel you from the group for this!"

**-Doctor Alert-**

"It's room 117—little Aelita," the doctor said. **(A/N: AELITA'S NOT LITTLE! End A/N)**

**-Cassidy-**

"Well aren't you the ant's pants," Cassidy snorted. "Peter Duncan is under XANA's control, and I'm going to replace the power supply. Get Aelita outta there and get to the factory with her so she can deactivate the tower."

**-Odd-**

"Aelita's heart won't like this if this keeps up!" Odd said.

"_HURRY UP!"_ Cassidy yelled, totally not in the mood for long-winded discussions at the moment.

**-Doctors are coming-**

The doctors rushed in to find an empty room.

**-The cavalry's on the way-**

And they were, passing an unconscious Peter Duncan in a rubber dinghy in the river along the way.

**-Back to Cassidy-**

She carefully and successfully replaced the battery.

"Aelita's going to be alive for this," she breathed and turned on the supercomputer.

She got out of the hazmat suit and went up into the elevator. _Lucky me,_ she thought bitterly. _I get kidnapped, and I'm not a kid. I'm 14 for grievance sake._

She took it to the entrance and saw her friends and Aelita. "Glad to see that Aelita made it!"

Aelita, alive and awake, nodded with a smile. "What a day, right?"

"Yeah, Aelita, what a day, now to the tower!" Cassidy smiled.

"Yeah," Odd said.

So Aelita, Cassidy, Yumi, and Odd went to Lyoko. Ulrich stayed behind to defend Jeremie.

The four came in contact with Kankrelats. "We haven't seen you guys in a long time!" Cassidy smiled proudly. "Glad we could massacre you!"

She cocked her gun and shot two Kankrelats.

Odd and Yumi took three out on their own. They went to the tower and found the two Tarantulas mentioned earlier. Cassidy shot one. "YES!"

The other was killed by Odd and Yumi.

Aelita made it into the tower and entered the Lyoko Code.

"Tower deactivated!" she said.

**-Vending machines at school, the next morning-**

"Peter Duncan was found unconscious in front of police headquarters. The police are investigating but for the moment don't have any leads on how the escaped prisoner ended up outside the police station," Yumi read from the newspaper, the Kadic Herald.

"If we did give our names, we wouldn't be believed," Cassidy smiled.

Aelita smiled. Today was brilliant.

Jeremie was smiling too. "I just saw Mrs. Mayer."

Odd's smile flickered. "Hmm?"

"She gave me the results of the math test!" Jeremie said.

"Hey, great, what did I get?" Odd asked.

"One thousand minus twenty divided by ten minus nine minus two," Cassidy said.

"You mean I got uh," Odd took a minute to figure it out. "Wow! I got a hundred?" He had stars in his eyes as he looked up.

"No, 86%," Cassidy smiled.

"That's cool! Cassidy, I am really appreciative of your Cliff's Notes. Keep 'em up!" Odd looked to her.

"Just helping you avoid a cero," Cassidy had her hands in her pockets as she turned to Jeremie. "What did I get?"

"You scored a hundred, like Aelita and me," Jeremie said.

"Great work, Cassidy," Aelita put an arm around the psychic's shoulder.

"Thanks."

"What about me?" Ulrich said.

"An easy 78%," Jeremie said. "You're getting there, Ulrich. You're getting there!"


	20. Jeremie's Temptation is Broken

**Temptation is here. Code Lyoko isn't mine. Cassidy is.**

Odd and Aelita were dodging trees and Hornet shots at the same time on his OverBoard.

"ODD!" A ticked-off voice shouted. It was Cassidy on her Over-Kartbed "That is the last time I allow you to persuade me to hand over Aelita!"

"What, and miss half the fun?" He shouted from above.

"Your idea of fun is just begging for a suicide and homicide note." Cassidy managed to steer so that Aelita could jump in the sidecar at any given moment. "If you want Aelita to fall in the digital sea, then—AELITA, JUMP!"

She did and landed in the sidecar. "Thank you Cassidy!"

"Attention all passengers, next stop activated tower!" the cat-warrior announced.

Ulrich pulled the autopilot on his OverBike, jumped, slicing two Hornets, and landed with perfect ease.

"Good job, Ulrich," Cassidy complimented the samurai.

"Is that Odd's idea of fun? Looks more like insanity to me," Aelita wasn't over the fact that Odd was a little reckless and almost killed the both of them.

"It looks like suicide and homicide at the same time, to me. But hey, if it's Odd, it's Odd," Cassidy faked a yawn.

They fought while on their vehicles, and soon Aelita reached the tower, thanks to Cassidy. But then the still-scarred Schyphozoa came.

Cassidy let out an unintentional mreow of fury. "Don't mess with Aelita, or me. My friend just left and the aftermath is still within me!" Hissing, she gave the jellyfish-like monster another wound to think about.

It fled. Cassidy roared. "We are the Lyoko Warriors, Destroyers of MONSTERS!"

"Great work, Cassidy!" Yumi came up on her OverWing.

Cassidy calmed down. "Thank you, Yumi!"

"You have a load of steam for a girl," Ulrich walked up to her.

"Lyoko's a punching bag, but the monsters are the targets!" Cassidy cocked her head to one side.

"Tower deactivated," Aelita's voice came from inside the tower.

"_Okay, I'll start the return to get you all home?"_ Jeremie said.

"XANA gets stronger with every return trip, and also are you _loony in the head_?" Cassidy asked.

"_No! Why?" _Jeremie's voice had an angry edge to it.

"Because you are about to do a stupid, nonsensical thing, and after the next one, you'll be unconscious!" Cassidy growled.

"_How do you know that?"_ Jeremie was getting increasingly ticked-off.

"Hello, I'm a _dangerous_ psychic," Cassidy's eyebrows slanted. "I mean, where _were_ you when I distributed my powers the first time? Sunbathing in the moonlight?"

"_It doesn't change a thing. That's my final answer!"_ Jeremie was angry now.

"Jeremie don't do this!" Cassidy's voice turned desperate.

"_Return to the past, now!"_

**-Back to the vending machines-**

"Jeremie is becoming a real pain. He just flies off the handle for no reason at all. He's like a time bomb," Ulrich said with his drink.

Cassidy sighed. "He's more addicted to the returns to the past like no other person than Franz Hopper himself. I have had a vision or two of him, but nothing nightmarish."

"And it showed an addiction to the returns such as this one?" Aelita asked.

"Yeah, but it was to elude from his enemies, not to do it out of spite. Franz Hopper used the returns over 2000 times," Cassidy's eyes closed of their own volition.

Jeremie came up then.

"Well, speak of the man who argued with me not once, but twice in the course of three days. Hey, Jeremie," Cassidy was showing the cold shoulder easily.

"Just because your intentions are good, doesn't mean I have to follow every one of them to a tee! Next time I say I'm doing a return trip, _don't stop me_!" Jeremie yelled at her.

Cassidy got really angry. "Well, if you'd allow my sage words into your head, instead of blowing them away, we would have gone back to school. Besides, XANA didn't have time to do any attacks here in the real world 'yesterday'."

Jeremie softened up a little, but nothing could divert his mood.

"Where were you?" Aelita asked.

"In my room, why? Is there a law against it?" Jeremie asked—Cassidy's mood worsened.

"Oh, bravo, Jeremie," Cassidy said sarcastically.

"What is it this time?" he rounded on her.

"You're yelling at your sweetheart!" her eyebrows slanted.

Jeremie realized his mistake and softened a bit more, this time his mood was calm. "Sorry, Aelita. I'll reword. I was in my room, researching the breaker/antivirus."

"Better," Cassidy smiled her mood also calming.

"We were worried," Yumi said.

"I'm so sorry for worrying you guys." Jeremie's eyes softened as well.

"Apology accepted," Odd said.

The bell rang and it was time for the younger warrior members to go to Mrs. Mayer's class and Yumi to go to Mrs. Hertz's class.

Mrs. Mayer was teaching length.

Jeremie was having a vision of his own and Cassidy along with it.

He was walking away from the black thing and trying to reach the light at the end.

Both boy and girl were disoriented. "Senora?"

"Yes, Cassidy, what is it?"

"Can we go to the infirmary?" Jeremie and Cassidy asked together.

"Oh, yes of course," Mrs. Mayer said.

"Do you want me to go with you?" Aelita asked the two.

"No!" Jeremie said.

"Jeremie, please, let her go with us," Cassidy begged, trying to hold her balance on her table.

"Okay, alright," Jeremie said.

**-Lunchtime-**

"Cassidy and Jeremie skipped history class?" Yumi asked.

"And gym class, too and now they're skipping lunch!" Ulrich said.

"Gym class and lunch I can understand with those two. But skipping history class is not Jeremie or Cassidy's style at all," Odd came in.

"I'll check their rooms!" Aelita was worried too. After giving Cassidy up to the infirmary, Jeremie took the chance to flee.

**-Infirmary first-**

Aelita went there first. She checked inside and found Cassidy laying there, knitting a scarf with purple and yellow yarns.

"It's for Odd when his birthday comes around. I already got your scarf and William's and Yumi's done, and Jeremie's and Ulrich's scarves are on their way," Cassidy sighed tiredly, knitting the last stitch and turning the knitting needles around to make the next row.

Aelita nodded. She could knit like a pro sometimes, and was careful not to get yarns tangled or the wrong stitch.

"And tell Jeremie that he's overworking himself and that neural helmet isn't helping either," Cassidy smiled a small smile.

**-Jeremie's room-**

There was a knock on his door. "Yes," he said in an innocent voice.

Aelita came in. "It's me. I brought the notes from the classes that you missed this morning." She carried a red binder.

"Put them down on the bed," Jeremie said.

"Cassidy says that you've been overworking yourself and the neural helmet isn't helping matters either," Aelita said.

Jeremie snorted in response. "Cassidy says a load of things, Aelita."

"She saved my life two days ago," Aelita shot back. "If it weren't for her, I would have ceased to exist. And now she's saving your life."

That spread a numb-feeling thing inside Jeremie's body. Cassidy did save Aelita's life. And he remembered.

"I'm so sorry, again, Aelita," Jeremie said.

"And she acknowledges the fact that XANA never takes a break," she nodded, as if Cassidy was there next to her.

"Aelita, there's something I have to tell you," Jeremie stood up. And before he could spit the words out, **XANA activated a tower.**

"She also said that we already know XANA never takes a break," Aelita nodded.

**-Cafeteria-**

Rosa was picking up the salt and pepper shakers.

Odd was on his umpteenth helping.

Yumi was concerned and annoyed. "You sure you're done now!"

Ulrich's cell phone rang. "Hello!"

"_SOS, XANA!" _Cassidy's voice rang out.

"On our way!" Ulrich said.

"_I've been discharged from the infirmary, so I can go to Lyoko or the lunchroom for this one. I think I'll pick Lyoko!"_ Cassidy said. _"I'll meet Jeremie, Yumi, and Aelita at the lab!"_

"Are you crazy? Yumi's right—" Ulrich looked to see Yumi gone. He also noticed **Rosa was possessed.**

"How'd she get out so fast?" Odd asked.

"I don't know!"

"_Also, don't wreck the cafeteria too badly. I think throwing tables is a good idea than throwing plates and forks and such," _Cassidy sounded stern.

**-TO THE FACTORY AND THE SCANNER ROOM-**

"_The activated tower's in the Mountain sector!"_ Jeremie said.

"Not bad," Cassidy commented nicely. "I was pining for a Mountain Sector mission."

"Is Yumi coming?" Aelita asked.

"She is." Cassidy warmly rubbed Aelita's shoulder.

"_What on Earth are they doing?"_ Jeremie asked as Yumi was joining Aelita and Cassidy.

"They're doing all they can. XANA has possessed Rosa," Yumi told everyone. "We'll have to make do without them."

"I already knew. And Jeremie, I think after the return, if you aren't unconscious, we should get rid of the neural helmet. I think we have a sledgehammer somewhere," Cassidy smiled wryly.

"_Okay!"_ Jeremie said.

Soon the three ladies were on Lyoko. They took the OverWing and the Over-Kartbed to the tower, but it was blocked by eighteen Kankrelats in a 6x3 formation.

"Yumi, use telekinesis. It'll divert some of these bugs away!" Cassidy said.

"Now that's an idea!" Yumi eagerly agreed.

Using the rock they were hiding behind, the geisha was able to get rid of almost all of the monsters.

"Great work. Now TO ZE TOWER!" Cassidy yelled jubilantly.

They got to the tower just in time.

**-Real World-**

Odd and Ulrich practically buried Rosa with the tables.

**-Lyoko-**

Aelita entered the Lyoko Code.

"Tower deactivated."

**-Lab-**

"Return to the past now!" Jeremie typed on the program.

**-Back to the vending machines-**

Jeremie showed up with a sledgehammer. "I believe Cassidy already told you."

"She sure did. And we're all for destroying that thing," Yumi said.

So they destroyed the neural helmet on the red path.

Odd spotted something. A burnt piece of something. "Cassidy, what is this?" he picked it up.

"A burnt piece of Sissi's letter to Ulrich!" Cassidy explained.

"What did it say?" Yumi asked.

"Basically, 'I love you, signed Yumi!' I knew it wasn't your handwriting Yumi, so I snatched it, took it here, and let it burn," Cassidy said.

"Okay."


	21. Cassidy and Yumi swap? What A Fine Mess!

**Cassidy belongs to me. Code Lyoko doesn't. But who cares. This is a story! Also:**

**CY (Cassidy in Yumi's body)**

**YC (Yumi in Cassidy's body)**

**Just so you know!**

Ulrich was drawing names from on the floor. "Okay, if it says a C, Cassidy's first. Y, it's Yumi. Odd's a Z—not for zero, it was his choice."

Grabbing the little sheet of paper, Ulrich found a C. "C, Cassidy!"

Yumi came out of the scanner first. "Oh, Yumi, I lose!"

Yumi wasn't herself. She was looking about herself in a way that said, "This is not my body!"

Ulrich was concerned for his friend-turning-into-something-better friend. "Hey, Yumi, are you okay?"

Yumi was about to say something in a hair-raising panicked voice, when Cassidy and Odd came out of the scanner.

Cassidy jumped out of her scanner. "What am I doing over here, huh?" she said in Yumi's voice.

Yumi was panicking this time. She screeched in Cassidy's voice. Odd came over to her as soon as he could and tried to comfort her. He was successful.

Aelita, who came in as soon as she could, didn't hear CY's panic.

"I think we got a little problem here," Odd said.

"You call this a _little _problem, Odd?" CY growled.

"Uh, oh," Odd was not going to hear the end of it, he realized.

**-To the Lab-**

Jeremie scanned the results. Cassidy's DNA and Yumi's DNA didn't match.

CY was not calm whatsoever. "What do we do?" The line reminded her of a cute little girl character with blue eyes and blonde hair from a cartoon movie rated PG. **(A/N: 20 cookies if you know the movie that has that line and the character I mentioned. Hint: 2002.)**

"Well," Odd said, trying for all of his luck to keep CY calm.

"I guess there is a little bug in the materialization program," Jeremie was sitting in the hot seat once again.

"You call this a _little bug_," CY and YC said together. "We can't stay this way!"

"Well, why don't you two go back to Lyoko and get devirtualized all over again?" Odd asked. "Maybe everything will get back to normal."

"Do you want us to have _no bodies_?" CY growled.

"Okay, bad idea," Odd said.

"No freaking duh," CY was sitting down now.

Jeremie gave the two girls a look of sympathy. This would not end well if it comes to it.

"Uh, so what do we do then?" Ulrich asked.

"We gotta fix the program," Jeremie said.

"And it will take all night, I suppose?" CY stood up.

"WHAT?" YC asked. "You mean we'll—"

"Yes, we'll have to sleep in each other's bodies," CY nodded solemnly then started to itch at something on her back. She went over to YC and asked, "Could I switch when we get to Kadic. I don't like those hooked things."

YC understood. "You can if you want to."

"Great," CY smiled with relief. "Oh, and I'm not that great with chopsticks. Could you stay with me?"

YC nodded. "That way you and I can stay out of trouble."

"Exactly."

"Hand me my cell phone," YC said.

"Here," CY handed YC her red cell phone.

"Thanks," YC started dialing for home.

CY gave YC her space, so she didn't eavesdrop.

YC nodded her approval at CY. She knew when to give people their space.

Yumi's parents picked up the phone. _"Yumi?"_

YC got nervous, but had a strong will. "Hey, Mom and Dad, Cassidy asked if I could stay, and I want to know if it's okay with you."

"_Oh, Yumi, you know we will say yes. Cassidy is so responsible and keeps you out of trouble and dishonor. Yes, but first you have to pack your stuff,"_ Her dad said.

"Thank you, Daddy," YC said.

"_See you tomorrow after you pack your stuff,"_ her mom said.

"Thanks, Mom," YC said.

They hung up.

CY asked, "Well?"

"They said yes," YC said.

"Great," CY said. "But wait, I would have to go in and pack for you, and I don't know what to pack."

YC grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen from her knapsack and started writing.

The items were super simple: a change of clothes, a couple hair ties, a vial of nail polish, and her hairbrush.

"Okay," CY said.

Aelita stayed with Jeremie to help him through the tough road ahead of them.

**-At the Ishiyama residence-**

YC smiled as CY neared the entrance. "I'll wait right here for when you come out."

CY smiled a little uncertain.

YC gave the other a look that said, "You can do it!"

CY nodded as she went inside. She walked up to Yumi's room.

Hiroki came around the corner. "Thinking about seeing _Ulrich_ again?"

CY didn't know how to react. _Just pack,_ she reminded herself in a command, _that's your mission right now, just pack._

She stayed silent and went inside to pack.

"You're not embarrassed about it, are ya, _Yumi_?" Hiroki kidded some more.

_Aw man, I'm not Yumi. I'm Cassidy Rene' McGuire, _CY's stomach twisted a bit.

CY had to think fast. Imitating Yumi's voice as best as she could, she said, "Beat it, Hiroki?" in a weak tone.

Hiroki stared at his "sister" and laughed. CY smirked. _Glad I could make your day, kid._

She packed the last thing on her list and left the room.

"Have fun with _Cassidy_ and _Ulrich_ tonight, _Yumi_," he teased again through chuckles.

CY ran out of the house and back to YC. YC could see her expression. "Are you okay?"

"One word, Yumi: Hiroki!" CY shook.

"Did you say, 'Beat it, Hiroki'?" YC guessed.

"Yeah, but I said it too weakly, and he just had a laughing fit on the floor," CY shook her head. "Just goes to show that I would be the worst Gazzy clone in the world."

"Okay, now let's head off for school," YC said.

So they did.

Jim came up as soon as the two entered the gates. "McGuire," he said. "Thank you for finding my stopwatch! If you didn't find it, I think that I would have to buy myself another one!"

YC didn't know what to say so she nodded and smiled.

"Thanks anyway," Jim was happy.

As soon as Jim left, YC got curious at CY. "What was that for?"

"Nothing, I heard from Jim that he lost his stopwatch. Luckily I found it near where the park begins. I gave it back, and there. He's happy." CY was honest to the core.

They went up to the girls' floor. "Well, I see the two loser girls are having another sleep over. What's the matter? Afraid the other's going to die if the one doesn't sleep over?"

"Beat it, Sissi! This is none of your business!" CY and YC said together.

Something didn't sit well with Sissi, but she backed off.

CY led YC into Aelita and Cassidy's dorm. "Take a load off before we have to go down to dinner. I believe it is mashed potatoes and gravy, Odd's favorite."

"Okay," YC said. "I believe that you said that you wanted to change the things, right?"

"That's right," CY said.

So they did.

"Ah, yeah, that is better," CY sighed with relief.

"Well, do you want to see Kiwi?" YC said.

"That diggity dog? Yeah I do!" CY said enthusiastically.

"You picked up on Odd's lingo, haven't you?"

"Just a little. Oh, get this imitation," CY let in a deep breath and said in an almost perfect version of Odd's voice: "What da ya think I am, a _braggart?_"

YC had to laugh. "That was really good."

"Thanks. And I think Odd will use that line in the future somewhere. I just don't know where," CY smiled.

Odd came in with two smack marks on his face.

CY flinched as a spark-flash came in. "Magali and Clare found out about each other?"

"Yeah."

"And they smacked you one at a time. One calling you a 'sneaky rat' the other calling you 'despicable'."

"Yeah," Odd said.

"Well you deserved it. A philanderer's path is no way to go," CY said sagely.

Odd nodded. "And what is a philanderer?"

"A boy with many girlfriends. Two in this case," CY nodded.

"And I'm sure I learned my lesson," he said. "You two coming for dinner?"

"Yeah," YC and CY said calmly.

"And since you, Cassidy, are dating William, you won't take the girl philanderer's route, are you?"

"Never, Yumi," CY said. "Soy fiel. I'm faithful."

"That's good," YC and Odd said together.

"Let's just hit to supper now, please. I'm sure that Odd's stomach will eat itself if we aren't careful!" CY got a little annoyed.

Odd nodded to YC.

**-Later on-**

Yumi in Cassidy's body was painting Cassidy in Yumi's body's nails on her left hand as Cassidy in Yumi's body petted Kiwi. "Here's a helpful hint. Don't bite your nails if you are bored or anxious." YC finished the middle finger's nail.

"I only do it when I'm bored or see that my nails are too long and I don't have a pair of nail clippers," CY said.

Suddenly CY's hand (petting Kiwi) and YC's (Holding CY's left hand) hands started to disappear and reappear as if by magic.

"I think that this is a problem," YC said.

**-The next morning at the factory-**

Jeremie was typing at the supercomputer. "I was right, Aelita. It's definitely a bug in the rematerialization program!" When he received no response, he said. "Aelita?"

Aelita was sleeping on the floor on a wire with a smile on her face, tired out from last night.

Jeremie smiled and went back to work.

**-Back to CY and YC-**

Kiwi woke up and walked over to CY's sleeping face. He gave her a few licks until she woke up. "Good morning, Kiwi," she yawned.

The gray dog went over to YC and licked her face. She woke up a little agitated. "Ah, please, Kiwi." She pushed him away.

CY yawned and stretched. Then both of her arms disappeared for two or three seconds more at the same time as YC's. Then they reappeared.

"It's getting worse," YC said.

**-The arches-**

"They only lasted a few seconds but our hands completely disappeared," YC explained to Jeremie. They were in their regular clothes.

"Strange," Jeremie said. "I'll be a lot happier when both of you are back in your _own_ bodies. I fixed the program. We just need to restart it from Lyoko! We'll go to the factory at lunch time."

"Oh, gosh, pop quiz on linear functions today!" CY panicked. "I don't know anything _on_ the subject. I'll fail!"

"I have some notes in my backpack," YC said.

They studied for a bit, and then the bell rang. "I'll see you near the sewers," CY said.

Jeremie and the others nodded.

**-During "Yumi's" math class-**

Cassidy in Yumi's body tried to remain calm as she sat next to her boyfriend. She gulped down a little.

William seemed to sense "Yumi's" nervousness. "You okay, Yumi!"

Trying to imitate Yumi's voice, she said, "Yeah, just a bit nervous. I studied but I am worried that I might fail."

Mrs. Mayer came in. _Oh, no, I can't say my usual "Senora" routine to her. She'll get suspicious. Then the truth will come out and then Jeremie will have to do a return to the past. I don't like this at all!_ CY gulped a huge lump down her throat.

"Take a few deep breaths, Yumi," William advised in a whisper.

CY nodded. _Yeah, that's right, stay calm, idiot. Oh, but why couldn't I have switched with Odd or Aelita or somebody younger so I wouldn't feel this way toward William? I hope class ends soon. I feel so conflicted sitting next to him. _

"Take out your pens, please. Pop quiz on linear functions," the teacher said and passed out the quizzes.

_Okay, no problem here. I'll just zip through this test, then fake being sick and go to the infirmary. No! That'll never work; the guys are counting on me going to Lyoko. And I can't back out there by going to the nurse's office. I know, I'll just zip through the test, and then just doodle. Nothing to worry about._

What CY didn't know was that she finished the quiz with all the questions filled in correctly and that she got it turned in.

Mrs. Mayer smiled. "Okay Yumi, you may have the rest of the class to yourself for a bit."

CY nodded then went back to her seat next to William. She got out Yumi's drawing notebook, and saw some cool drawings. _Let's see, a picture of a fan—good job. A drawing of Jeremie—probably from that Limbo experience, but overall nice job. A flower—exceptional. A drawing of me—Wow, that's neat. It looks as nice as Jeremie's drawing. Hey—that's Ulrich—Excellent—25 points for all the drawings. Ah, a blank spot. Now I can draw._

She drew a lovely outline of a horse. Then she added the detail.

"I didn't know that you loved horses, Yumi," William said.

"Uh, actually, my friend, Cassidy, loves them. She requested that I would draw one for me to keep," CY lied in imitation of Yumi's voice.

"That's really nice of her to let you keep the drawing."

"She didn't want it for herself. She just wanted me to do it to have something of my drawing collection," CY said, keeping the imitation in check.

William went back to his test.

CY put down her pencil to wipe some sweat off her forehead. _How does Yumi stand to wear this sweater? Is she always cold? I'll never know. I'm not a stalker._

Then CY's hand started to disappear and reappear.

CY stood up. "Ma'am, I'm feeling some chills, could I please go to the infirmary?"

"Uh…yes of course, Yumi! Go ahead." Mrs. Mayer said.

CY nodded her thanks and left the room with Yumi's backpack and drawing notebook in tow.

**-To the sewers-**

"No one noticed anything in class?" Jeremie asked CY.

"No, I zipped through the pop quiz and drew a little in Yumi's drawing notebook, then that's where and when it happened," CY said.

"Nothing vulgar, I hope," YC said.

"Nope, just a horse drawing. Also you did a great job on those drawings. If I were my old art teacher, I would've given you 25 out of 25 points for each drawing that you had," CY smiled a bit.

"What do you think is the problem Jeremie and Cassidy?" Aelita came in.

"Complete disintegration because our atoms might split," CY answered in a depressed voice. "We're unstable!" She almost cried in Yumi's body.

That struck a lot of fear into the others' hearts.

"Great," YC said.

**-The Factory and then to Lyoko-**

"Yumi, I'm scared," CY said while in the elevator.

"Just stay calm, and we may get through this. Now how do you work your tube on Lyoko?" YC said.

"Just think 'Turn into a…' and add the weapon that you want—a fan, a gun, a sword, anything that may work to defeat monsters. What about your fans?" CY asked.

"Just toss them at the monsters and hit the target. And if you need telekinesis, use it—just put your fingers on your temples and allow the energy to move anything you want moved," YC said.

"Okay," CY nodded as they headed for the scanner room.

Soon, Odd, Ulrich and Aelita were on Lyoko and soon, CY and YC were in the scanners. "I hope we get back into our own bodies," CY was nervous, and wasn't afraid to let it show.

"_We will, Cassidy, just stop thinking negatively,_" Jeremie said.

"Okay," CY said.

"_You'll have to get to a way tower due north of where you arrived," _Jeremie said. _"Aelita will reboot the program from that tower and the nightmare should be over."_

CY started to hiccup a little.

YC noticed. "Jeremie, Cassidy's got the hiccups!"

CY showed a little defiance. "I—hic—am not! Just a little—hic—nervous that's—hic—all!"

"_Transfer: Cassidy. No I mean that is—uh—Yumi!"_

"Jeremie, just say CY and YC, will you?" CY got a little scared.

"_Transfer: CY, Transfer: YC; Scanner: CY, Scanner: YC, virtualization,"_ Jeremie said.

They got to the ice sector and CY was trying to balance with Yumi's virtual form. She was successful.

"And now, let's hear it for _Catwoman_," YC said.

"I love that movie," CY said. "But there is no time for that."

"Well, let's go," Ulrich said enthused.

Everyone ran to the way tower. "Be right back," Aelita said.

"Okay!" CY said.

Then CY and YC started to disappear and reappear at the same time.

The attack stopped there. "I'm starting to get even more scared, Yumi," CY said.

"Just remember to stay calm and everything will be okay!" YC said.

"I hope Aelita makes it fast. This is turning into a big emergency here," Odd said.

Some Kankrelats came on the scene.

CY turned around. "Talk about a few unwanted audience members."

CY took Yumi's fan and tossed it at one of them. It disintegrated.

"Great work."

They all got down to fighting while Aelita was working on the materialization program.

**-Inside the tower-**

"Jeremie we have a big problem," Aelita said. "I can't do anything from here. The program's being run by inhibitors."

"_I'll have to deactivate them,"_ Jeremie said. _"I'll try to find them."_

A few minutes later…_"Oh, no!"_

**-Back to the Lyoko warriors outside the tower-**

Everyone was fighting like professionals.

Aelita exited the tower. "Hurry, we have to get to Sector 5!"

CY nodded.

"_I'm bringing up your vehicles,"_ Jeremie said.

"The program's run by inhibitors and we have to shut them down, don't we?" CY sounded a little bored.

"_You guessed it, Cassidy,"_ Jeremie said.

"How do you work the Over-Kartbed?" YC asked.

"Just lay down on the bed that's there and ride it like the time we had a small Driver's Ed course," CY said.

"Oh, I see," YC said.

"I know how to work the OverWing, so you don't have to worry about anything so far!" CY got onto Yumi's vehicle.

**-Later on-**

"Are you absolutely sure we have to go to Sector 5," YC asked.

"_I don't have time to crack the millions of codes to find those inhibitors,"_ Jeremie said. "Remember…"

"I know. No getting back into our own bodies equals death," CY said in a sad voice. "And I don't want to die!"

"Just stay cool and everything will be alright!" Odd came up to CY.

"That's what people keep saying," CY almost stopped the OverWing. "But I'm scared."

Odd nodded. "Listen, we'll get through this, I'm positive."

_Oh, sure. Leave it to the Jinx to cheer me up._

CY didn't respond, but headed on their route to Sector 5.

Soon everyone was on Sector 5…except for Ulrich, who got devirtualized by a Megatank.

"I'm so glad that you didn't switch with Odd," YC said.

Odd was holding his stomach and looking sick.

"There wasn't any time to take some ginger, was there?" CY asked Odd sympathetically.

"No! I thought that this would be a regular non-Sector 5 mission," Odd said.

"It's okay," she patted Odd on the back. "Look the doors are opening."

And soon they entered the Core Zone.

But it looked like there wasn't any landscape.

"Yumi, hand me my tube, please," CY said.

"Okay," YC handed the object to her.

_Turn into a gun._

CY's thoughts made the tube turn into an ultra-powerful .22 caliber gun. "I see the key. I'm going to shoot at it."

CY took aim and fired two rounds. They both hit the key mechanism and the door on the other end opened.

"This is like zero point energy," CY said. "We'll be able to float across."

"Okay," Odd smiled. "Cassidy, I like the way you think!"

"I don't like the fact that soon Yumi and I will be dying," CY showed a sad look.

They got to the other side with no problems and into the celestial dome.

There was a slight attack with CY and YC.

"I hope we can get into our own bodies, too," YC said sympathetically.

"Okay," CY said.

Aelita worked on the interface. _"Quick! Deactivate the inhibitors as fast as you can and don't hang around there too long! Things are going to get messy!"_

"Jeremie, she's got this, okay!" CY said. "She'll do it quickly, but if you keep bugging her she might as well not deactivate the inhibitors at all!"

"_Aelita, Hurry!"_ Jeremie said. _"They're in the final stage of disintegration."_

"Don't SAY THAT!" CY commanded, though her voice had a sharp, sad note to it. "PLEASE don't say that!"

YC hugged CY as tight as she could.

"_Hurry up Aelita,"_ Jeremie was getting anxious.

Aelita finally deactivated the inhibitors. "That's it! Done, Jeremie. You can take over now!"

Jeremie started the reboot process. "I'll transfer it over to the rematerialization program."

Some Mantas shot at CY and YC.

"Yumi! Cassidy!" Odd shrieked.

"_I sure hope that the tweak on the materialization program worked!" _Jeremie said.

"_I'm going down to the scanner room!"_ Ulrich's voice came through.

**-Scanner room-**

Cassidy and Yumi passed out in the scanner room.

Ulrich came in a second later. "Cassidy is that—is that —is that you?"

Cassidy woke up a bit disoriented. "Ulrich?"

"Yeah," Ulrich asked.

Cassidy smiled weakly. "Thanks for your concern the other day!" then she conked out again.

Ulrich checked Yumi.

"It's me," Yumi said. "I'm back to normal. And Cassidy is too."

"I think she's dazed." He checked the other girl again.

"Or her grief beforehand drifted into her energy and zapped it," Yumi said.

Odd and Aelita came out a few minutes later.

"Is Cassidy okay," Aelita asked.

"Just dazed, over her grief, or both," Ulrich said then shouted, "It's okay, Jeremie; we've got full recovery!"

Cassidy was out for a few minutes more. Then she awoke. She looked at herself before saying, "Yep, I'm in the right body for hopefully forever!"

Ulrich, who the gang was by her side, nodded.

Cassidy smiled. "I'm not so scared anymore. We aren't dying, and we will live another day!"


	22. We have an Ultimatum! Cassidy and Odd KN

**We interrupt this story for a special Disclaimer. We're going out to the field where the author has this to say:**

**I don't own Code Lyoko. But I do own Cassidy. That is all.**

Jeremie and Cassidy were explaining the EMP bomb.

"To make a long story short: We don't have a mini-version yet, and once Big Boy, Jr. blows up the XANA person or thing is obliterated. It also affects anything electronic." Cassidy calmed down.

It had only been a week since Cassidy and Yumi switched bodies. They didn't avoid Lyoko. They were back on their feet in just a day.

"Is that true?" Yumi asked her.

"It is. And I believe that Big Boy, Jr. will be used today by Ulrich. And when that happens, Ulrich, drop your cell phone here and grab the walkie-talkie beside the elevator," Cassidy said.

"Okay," Ulrich said.

"And now, let's go to class," Cassidy said.

Everyone agreed.

**-To Lyoko's ice sector-**

The pulsations seemed to lead nowhere.

**-To the cafeteria's entrance-**

Sissi, Hervé, and Nicholas strode up to Ulrich, Aelita, and Jeremie. "Oh, what do you know, Yumi isn't here with you. Oh, that's right, I just saw her with William. How stupid of me!" Sissi said.

"You do know that Cassidy is dating William, don't you, Sissi?" Jeremie asked.

Sissi was thunderstruck. "But I thought that Yumi was going out with him."

"They have—William and Cassidy—been dating for a few months now," Hervé said.

"Shut up, Hervé. This doesn't concern you!" Sissi yelled at him.

Ulrich smiled. "I can't believe that someone who is so madly in love with me could skimp on a detail like Cassidy going out with William."

Sissi blushed in shame and left, her cronies following along.

"That worked," Jeremie said.

_BEEP_

_BEEP_

_BEEP_

"An activated tower—XANA's on the move again. Too bad for our music class! Let's get to the factory!" Jeremie stood up along with Aelita.

Jim stopped the three as Mr. Delmas walked by. "Where do you kids think you're going? That's the way to your classroom." He pointed the way.

Ulrich, Aelita, and Jeremie couldn't believe their luck. "Oh, no!" Ulrich said.

** -Let's see where Delmas is going, shall we?-**

Odd and Cassidy were with William and Yumi. "Well, Cassidy and I've got to get to music class with the others."

Cassidy gave William a peck.

William sounded half-bored. "Lucky you! We've got chemistry."

"We'll perfect our chemistry later, William, with ice cream. Tomorrow afternoon as it is a Saturday after all," Cassidy smiled.

Mr. Delmas came up then.

Odd noticed. "Oh, the school principal!" he sounded grim.

"Odd, there's something not right here," Cassidy squeaked.

"Good morning Mr. Delmas. We were just on our way to class," Yumi greeted brightly.

Cassidy looked up in the air. "Am I the only one that notices?"

Yumi went inside. "See you guys!" And she went into the class that she was supposed to go to.

Mr. Delmas grabbed Cassidy and Odd roughly. She screeched, "FIRE!"

That didn't attract anything. Mr. Delmas dragged them.

William grabbed the principal's shoulder. "What's the matter with you, sir? You can't treat students like that! Wait. What are you doing?"

"William, get help," Cassidy commanded. "It's our only hope."

The principal looked back and kicked her boyfriend into the science building and into the bottom two steps.

He got up and limped over to where Cassidy and Odd were.

Mr. Delmas was near the gates.

"FIRE!" Cassidy yelled. "FUEGO! FIRE!"

"HELP!" Odd yelled.

"Let me go, please," Cassidy whimpered. "This isn't right!"

The principal shoved Odd and Cassidy into the backseat of the car parked near the entrance, then he got in the driver's side and buckled his seatbelt.

"STOP!" William yelled.

He limped to the gates.

Mr. Delmas peeled out of the driveway and drove.

"Hey! Cassidy!" William shouted.

"WILLIAM!" Cassidy screeched.

**-Nicholas in the bathroom-**

He was playing his video game in the bathroom when he heard William say, _"Help, the principal's gone totally crazy!"_

**-To the schoolyard-**

To Magali, Christophe, and Yumi, William continued, "He's kidnapped Cassidy and Odd!"

The first word that came to Yumi's mind was XANA.

**-To music class-**

The teacher was playing the flute when Nicholas came in. "Delmas has just kidnapped McGuire and Della Robbia."

"XANA," Jeremie said to Ulrich and Aelita under his breath.

Yumi came into the room and went to Aelita, Jeremie, and Ulrich. "This has XANA's name written all over it!"

"No kidding," Ulrich said.

"What kind of nonsense is this?" Mr. Alto asked Nicholas.

"But it's true, sir," Nicholas said. "He even beat up William Dunbar."

That caused concern.

Mr. Alto was instantly swayed. "Don't you move; I'll be right back."

Yumi felt instantly guilty. "If only I was kidnapped. That way Cassidy or Odd might have a fighting chance."

"No, Yumi, it wasn't your fault," Ulrich soothed. "You had class and that's okay."

Yumi didn't feel swayed by this, but kept her cool.

Jeremie received a text. He found his cell phone and saw that the message came from XANA.

He read the text out loud to Aelita, Yumi, and Ulrich. "It's a message from XANA. Aelita to the Ice Sector at 2:00 to give herself up to the Schyphozoa. If not, Cassidy and Odd will be liquidated."

That panicked the four. Ulrich stood up. "We don't have any time to lose!"

"We have to get to the factory," Yumi came in.

Mr. Alto came back in. "I want everyone in their seats right now."

Most of the students sat, but Ulrich and Yumi were the only ones standing. "How do people expect us to save the world if they don't leave us alone?"

Yumi only shook her head in an "I don't know" attempt.

"And quiet down."

** -Later on-**

Cassidy woke up to freezing cold. "Tengo frío."

"You can say that again," Odd woke up too. "This feels north of Siberia."

"Not even c-close Odd," she shivered. "This l-looks like t-the freezing rooms near the wharf."

"You are so clever, you know?" Odd put a hand around her to keep her from hypothermia.

"My _first n-name_ means clever," Cassidy said.

Odd stood up and looked to Mr. Delmas, who was standing there.

"Odd, wait, this looks like an ultimatum. XANA wants to keep us here until 2:00 in the afternoon, then," Cassidy trembled. "Odd, hug me!"

Odd nodded and did. Cassidy sobbed a bit. "This is not good."

Cassidy shook her head. "No it isn't!"

"And Delmas must've taken our cell phones," Odd continued.

"He did," Cassidy confirmed.

"In the intuitive words of our friend Yumi, we better get outta here before we freeze to death!" Odd said.

They both stood up and Odd neared him a bit. "Uh…Mr. Delmas, sir, uh…"

Mr. Delmas turned and shocked Odd.

Cassidy turned to him. "ODD!"

Then she turned to Mr. Delmas. "YOU LEAVE HIM ALONE!" She ran up to him and shielded his eyes. "ODD, MOVE IT!"

Odd nodded and got up shakily running a few feet before Delmas overthrew Cassidy and sent her into her friend, sending them into the bars.

"Well, we landed ourselves in a heap of trouble," Cassidy deadpanned.

"Well Plan A is out!" Odd did not smile one little bit.

**-Back to school-**

"Right then, everybody here?" Jim asked. "Classes are cancelled for the rest of the day! You can all go home!"

William had a little bitter thought. _And Cassidy wanted to go get ice cream tomorrow afternoon. Now she's kidnapped. I hope she and Odd are okay._

Jeremie, Yumi, Ulrich, and Aelita snuck past.

"Sissi and William, the detective would like to ask you a few questions," Jim continued.

Sissi found Jeremie and the others and said, "Hey, what about those guys? You should question them too. They're always scheming with Odd and Cassidy."

"Stern, Ishiyama, Belpois, and Stones," Jim called the surnames out.

Ulrich, Yumi, Jeremie, and Aelita stopped when called. Jeremie was struck with an expression that almost said "I'm bored". "Definitely not our day!"

Jim had a contemptuous look on his face.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they knew something about what happened to my father," Sissi continued.

"Come on, you four, follow me!" said the lead detective.

"Ready?" Ulrich asked his three friends.

"GO!" Jeremie shouted.

The four broke into a run.

"What? Come on, get back here!" Jim yelled.

It was like a movie. Jeremie, Aelita, Ulrich, and Yumi jumped the stairs, landing without injury and kept on running, climbing gates that the investigators and Jim had to go around.

_Don't go there!_ Cassidy's words told Aelita and Jeremie when they were about to get around the science building. _That's where they'll corral you. Oh, and corral in verb form means surround, Aelita. _

One look passed from Jeremie to Aelita, and they turned back around and confused them just a hair.

Yumi and Ulrich got away, thanks to their stamina.

But Aelita and Jeremie got caught.

Jim was determined to get Ulrich or Yumi, but **(A/N: LOL to infinity! End A/N)** he ran into a tree.

Yumi had to stop for a bit because she found a Euro on the ground. She picked it up, but got caught.

Ulrich got to the factory.

**-Cold-**

Cassidy started to shiver a lot more than normal. "My…friend is really cold. Hey, XANA…"

"Cold can kill too," Cassidy managed to say without stuttering.

XANA-Delmas gave up his jacket.

Cassidy, with the help of Odd, wrapped it around herself. She felt a little warmer.

"Thanks, Odd," Cassidy said. "If I wasn't dating William, I would go out with you if necessary."

"Why's that?"

"Because I love your jokes."

**-Principal's office…but without the principal-**

"Nice going, Sissi," Jeremie said.

"Yeah, nice going!" Yumi played with the Euro she found.

Jeremie went on. "You really messed up this time. It so happens that we're the only ones who can help your father."

Yumi scowled at Sissi. "And you probably laid that Euro-on-the-ground trap so I could get caught."

"What, I didn't plant that trap!" Sissi was a little outraged. To Jeremie she added, "What do you mean?"

"Your father," Aelita said, "has been p—possessed."

"Oh, yeah right! Like in _Hospital of Horrors?_" Sissi spat sarcastically. "And he's been taken over by some demonic entity that will make him do unspeakable things, huh?"

"Well, basically, that's about it!" Jeremie said.

**-Back to the Wharf-**

Cassidy was shivering less and less in Delmas's jacket. Then she heard something hit the tiles. "Our cell phones!" she murmured.

She grabbed her cell phone and dialed for Ulrich.

**-To the factory with Ulrich-**

Ulrich opened the lid to the sewer entrance at the factory. Then he ran over to the entrance to the factory. As he swung on the rope, his phone rang. He landed and then answered his phone.

"Cassidy, are you okay? Where are you?"

"_Near the cold rooms in the w-wharf and I believe the n-number is 56 and O-Odd and I are doing o-okay so f-far…"_ Cassidy's voice was cut off.

**-What happened?-**

XANA-Delmas levitated the cell phones in the air and crushed them.

"Well, my parents are going to have giraffes when they hear that my cell phone was crushed," Cassidy deadpanned.

"My parents wouldn't mind it," Odd said.

"That's because they are way too understanding," Cassidy muttered.

"What was that?" Odd asked.

"Nothing," Cassidy said, and then yawned.

"Don't fall asleep yet, Cassidy!" Odd said.

"Sorry," Cassidy said. "Sometimes in freezing cold I get tired."

"It's okay, but I don't want you to risk hypothermia," Odd reasoned.

"Thanks, Svelte," Cassidy teased a little.

Odd chuckled.

**-Back to Ulrich-**

"Cassidy? Cassidy?" Ulrich asked repeatedly.

He hung up. Then he turned his attention to the EMP bomb that Cassidy labeled Big Boy, Jr.

There was a note beside it. Ulrich went over and read it. It was instructions on how to operate Big Boy, Jr.

"Cassidy thinks of everything," he smiled a little.

**-Back to where Jeremie, Aelita, Yumi, and Sissi are-**

"So, in order to help my father, you have to go and deactivate a tower that's in a virtual universe," Sissi asked.

"Look, does Jeremie have to draw you a picture? That's how we do things when XANA activates a tower," Yumi was irritated.

"My last question: Why should I help a couple of completely whacko, pathological liars, huh?" Sissi was still not believing everything Aelita, Yumi, and Jeremie had told her.

"Keep it down!" one of the police officers that was one of the guards said.

"It's not us you'll be helping. It's your father," Aelita tried to reason. "You have to trust us. I'm begging you."

William came out of the interrogation room. "Thank you, you can go home now!" the lead detective said to him.

William went along his way, still worried over Cassidy and Odd's sakes and lives hanging in the balance.

The lead detective called Sissi in. "Elizabeth Delmas, it's your turn."

**-Let's see what wild (Wild in the streets) tale she comes up with-**

"It's true that my father's been acting kinda weird for a while now. He's taken into locking himself in the basement to tinker around and he says strange things, too. The other day, he told me he was fed up with life. I told him it was only natural for a school principal with such a heavy load to feel that way. And then he started laughing in a really crazy way, and said that he did have a heavy load but he hadn't decided where to set it off, yet. And then I also heard him on the phone saying he gotten some material. I didn't really get what he said. But it sounded like decorators or destinators or…"

"DETONATORS?" The lead investigator/detective, listening to the story that Sissi said, stood up.

"Yeah, that was it!" Sissi seemed proud of herself.

**-Outside the office-**

"EVACUATE THE SCHOOL!" The lead detective commanded, exiting the room.

That swirled confusion to Yumi, Jeremie, and Aelita.

Sissi was so proud of herself.

**-Evacuation-**

Sissi, Yumi, Aelita, and Jeremie ran off the campus grounds. Yumi went on ahead. "I'm going to back Ulrich up in case he needs me."

Jeremie nodded in understanding and approval. When he, Aelita, and Sissi stopped, to Sissi, he said, "Thanks for trusting us, Sissi."

"Don't mention it. But if your story about a virtual world turns out to be phony, you're going to regret it." Sissi threatened, and Jeremie's cell phone rang.

Jeremie picked it up. "Ulrich, where are you?"

**-To Ulrich-**

"On my way to the refrigerated warehouses," Ulrich was using his skateboard to transport Big Boy, Jr. "I'm going to try to set Cassidy and Odd free."

Yumi came up to him. "You mean _we_ are going to try to set Cassidy and Odd free!"

**(A/N: Don't ask how Yumi got over to Ulrich so fast, she just did! End A/N)**

"Okay," Ulrich corrected himself. "We're going to try to set Cassidy and Odd free."

**-To Jeremie-**

"XANA's ultimatum expires in fifteen minutes," Jeremie checked his watch.

**-Back to Ulrich and Yumi-**

"We'll go as fast as we can," Ulrich said. "Meet you at the factory."

**-The romp through the park-**

"Sissi," Jeremie noticed, "What are you doing?"

"I'm coming with you," Sissi panted. "Remember my father's involved in this. And I want to check out this virtual world business you've been blathering about."

"Oh, alright," Jeremie conceded.

They made their way to the park.

**-Ulrich and Yumi made it; to the factory-**

"Wow! I feel like I'm in a James Bond movie!" Sissi said.

"XANA doesn't waste time!" Jeremie said to Aelita. "Your friend, the Schyphozoa, is waiting for you."

"How much time before the ultimatum is up?" Aelita asked.

"Two minutes," Jeremie said grimly.

**-Lyoko-**

The Schyphozoa was waiting for Aelita, alright.

**-Ulrich and Yumi-**

They got to chamber 56, but there was no one there. Cassidy was wrong, but she tried her best anyway.

Ulrich's phone rang. He picked it up. "Hurry, one minute to go, Ulrich and Yumi."

"But Jeremie, there are dozens of cold rooms here!" Ulrich said.

**-Back with Aelita, Jeremie, and Sissi-**

"I should have handed myself over to the Schyphozoa," Aelita was getting to the point in which she might give up.

"NO! Ulrich and Yumi are going to make it," Jeremie looked to the computer screen. "The ultimatum is up!"

**-To Odd and Cassidy-**

XANA kicked into action and turned around to Odd and Cassidy. He (Odd) was awake, but she ended up asleep. XANA-Delmas started over to Odd and Cassidy. The odd-balled boy noticed, but the dangerous psychic didn't.

**-Ulrich and Yumi-**

They heard Odd scream in pain.

**-Back to Odd's predicament and Cassidy's terror-**

"ODD!" Cassidy woke up when Odd started screaming. She stood up and tried to make a move to XANA-Delmas, but got electrified too.

She ended up screaming too.

**-Ulrich and Yumi are on their way-**

They got to the right room and Ulrich said, "Jeremie, Big Boy, Jr. It won't blow away the principal, will it?"

**-Back to the lab-**

"Uh…theoretically speaking, no," Jeremie said.

**-Time to unleash Big Boy, Jr.-**

"Watch out!" Ulrich called out.

XANA-Delmas did and the bomb exploded. It was almost like a return trip, but without the going-back-in-time bit.

Cassidy came to when it was over. "We're not dead?" she asked weakly. Then she realized. "WE'RE NOT DEAD!" She whooped for joy and gave Ulrich and Yumi the biggest hug they had ever received since the time that Aelita came back to life on Lyoko ("Jeremie, I'm ready for my materialization now!").

"Let's get outta here," Odd said.

**-Jeremie-**

"Ulrich, Yumi, can you hear me?" He asked, then spotted a walkie-talkie.

He picked it up and said, "This is Jeremie calling Ulrich. Come in, Ulrich!"

"_We're okay, and Cassidy and Odd are too," _Ulrich replied.

Jeremie sighed with relief.

"_We're going to the factory now,"_ Cassidy's voice came in.

That sent relief waves all around the Lab.

**-On their way to the factory-**

Cassidy saw Delmas coming. "Stop!"

Nothing happened.

"HALT! FREEZE! Go to the freezer! Fall into thin ice! Take anhydrous ammonia! Hibernate! Anything!" She called rapidly.

Time was still going.

"Darn it!" Cassidy was shocked. "It worked one time. And I was sure that it would work this time."

"Maybe you can't do it because it was for that one time," Yumi said.

Cassidy was at a loss for words. "Then I'll defend against Delmas, get going! I've got a clean slate."

Yumi, Odd and Ulrich nodded. "See ya!"

Cassidy cracked her knuckles. "Show me what ya got, XANA. You don't scare me."

**-To the lab-**

"There you are!" Jeremie said. "But where's Cassidy."

"And what about my father? Is he all right?" Sissi asked the gang.

"Couldn't be better. He's outside playing with Cassidy?" Odd said. "And she tried to stop time, but this time it didn't work."

"To Lyoko!" Jeremie said.

The four Lyoko warriors nodded as they headed down to the scanner room. Sissi went up to help Cassidy.

**-With Cassidy-**

She was doing okay. She dodged another one of XANA-Delmas's sparks. "You know, that ultimatum was really lame. Just like that supposed mud attack!" Cassidy insulted.

"BANZAI!" a voice yelled. There was a flash of pink and black mixed together and the person clearly had a bar.

"Sissi!" Cassidy smiled. "Even though I never really say this often, but am I glad to see you?"

"Let's get going on this," Sissi said.

**-Lyoko-**

The three defenders landed with perfect timing. Aelita came in last. "We're ready to go!" Yumi said.

They looked for the activated tower, but they couldn't find it.

_Check the ice cave entrance at the top of the mesa, _Cassidy's words tiptoed into Aelita's head.

"Cassidy's paraphrased words say that we should check in the ice cave entrance on top of the mesa," Aelita said.

"Cassidy sure is smart," Yumi said.

"But she says she's not a genius. She just does schoolwork and everything to get good grades," Ulrich said. "And she is creative. One time, I caught her drawing a horse, but she didn't know I was there."

So they fought the tarantulas that were there and they descended into the ice cave entrance.

Aelita deactivated the tower in the nick of time.

**-With Sissi, Cassidy, and Mr. Delmas-**

Mr. Delmas passed out.

Sissi got worried over her dad. "What's gonna happen to him now? I mean, with the kidnapping and everything."

"He'll be fine, but you and he and everyone else won't remember anything!" Cassidy panted the signs of the fight gone.

"And you and your friends?" she asked.

"We'll remember, but it's complicated how we remember," Cassidy was about to pass out.

"I bet you'll remember this hug for helping?" Sissi gave Cassidy a hug.

"You can go ahead, Einstein. I wonder which would be worse… being blind or having to see this!" Odd had Sissi's phone. He was devirtualized after the tower was deactivated. And he went to check on how Cassidy and Sissi were holding up.

Cassidy passed out in Sissi's hug.

**-Two-step to the whole-green lab-**

Jeremie started typing.

Yumi, Aelita, and Ulrich came up from the scanner room. "What's going on at the bridge?" Yumi asked.

"Odd won't say!" Jeremie pressed enter. "Return to the Past, Now!"

**-Back in time-**

Cassidy explained what happened on the bridge near the cafeteria entrance. "And so, she gave me a hug, and I blacked out! No big deal."

Aelita nodded. "That's good."

"Better watch it. Sissi's on the way!" Cassidy's eyes got a little light.

"What do you know, Yumi isn't here with you. Of course not, I saw her with William. How stupid of me!" Sissi strode up.

"Sissi, I'm dating him. Yumi isn't, but that's okay though," Cassidy said. "You didn't know, and that's okay."

Yumi came up after Sissi left. "What happened at the bridge?" she asked.

"Sissi hugged me for helping. No big deal," Cassidy explained. "I passed out due to all the fighting."


	23. Brr it's cold outside today!

**Disclaimer: Please believe that I don't own Code Lyoko.**

**Claimer: I do own Cassidy. And that's the truth.**

**-Lyoko-**

A tower in the ice sector activated.

**-Jeremie's room-**

Jeremie was sleeping when his computer beeped. He got out of bed, put on his glasses and saw that there was a weird-acting super-scan. "Something is not right here!"

But it disappeared and made a funny noise.

"What do you mean, _quack?"_ Jeremie asked his computer.

His cell phone rang. He picked it up. "Hello, you've reached Jeremie's mobile. How may I help you?"

"_I'm not sure what makes a computer quack, but go to sleep, Jeremie. TV's coming, and we have to be in prime condition,"_ Cassidy's voice was groggy.

Jeremie wasn't sure if it was a TV or something else. He shrugged and they hung up without another word.

"An alarm signal and no activated tower? That's weird," Jeremie crawled into bed.

**-The next morning-**

Yumi was on her way to tell her friends that T.V. was coming.

**-To Jeremie's room with Jeremie, Odd, Ulrich, Aelita, and Cassidy-**

"And you are sure of the alarm last night?" Aelita asked him.

"He was a little out of it, but he heard it," Cassidy stretched, giving Odd his film. "So that way you can stop going on a Man Hunt for your DVD film _I Guess our Guest is a Ghost_."

Odd was excited.

Yumi came in. "T.V.'s going to be here in five minutes."

"And Odd's future career is not going down the toilet," Cassidy smiled.

**-Outside Kadic's administration building-**

A car pulled up. Its door opened to reveal Thomas Vincent. He had a hint of gray in his brown hair. His face looked strict, but not too strict.

Mr. Delmas and Jim greeted him and his camerawoman when they got into the door. "My dear T.V., on behalf of the students and faculty, we're very honored that you—" Mr. Delmas was interrupted.

"Okay, okay, no big deal, uh—time is money. This is Edna, my camera—uh—woman, person, whatever—Never on time." T.V. turned to Edna. "Show up late one more time and you're finished. I've got 150 cameramen who'd kill for a chance to work with T.V." He then turned to Jim. "You, Sweatshirt, park my car away from the kids. I don't want them scratching it." He threw his keys at him.

**-To Science Class-**

"Now let's continue with our study of plant life. After our field trip last week, I asked you to calculate the yield of the field of corn that we visited. Now, who can give me the answer?" Mrs. Hertz spotted Nicholas's head slam down into his desk and asked him. He jumped back up.

"Yeah? 1,527 tons!" Nicholas said.

"That'll solve world hunger," Cassidy cracked and everyone, including Mrs. Hertz, laughed.

Mrs. Hertz soon quieted the class down and T.V. came in.

She turned to him. "Yes?"

He didn't pay attention to Mrs. Hertz. He gave an order to Edna. "Give a pan-around shot of the kids."

Mrs. Hertz went up to them. Sissi stood up and joined her. "Ahem," Mrs. Hertz said. "Can I help you?"

"Yes, get out of the shot!" He ordered.

Mrs. Hertz hmphed.

T.V. got in front of the camera after Mrs. Hertz reluctantly got out of the way. "Do our schools provide a future for our youth, faced with the teacher's bland attitudes? We have reason to doubt. To see how bad it's become—" He walked over to Jeremie's table. Cassidy was beside him—"all you need to do is pick a student at random, and ask the student her grade point average. You for example?" He pointed the mike at Cassidy.

"89.23% for the term," Cassidy sighed into the microphone.

"And how do you feel about the school so far?"

"I feel great about it. I have my friends, and my enemies, but more former than the latter I guess. And my roommate is great," Cassidy faked a smile. She knew all about him before he arrived. But she didn't have time to be rude and such.

"And does this school provide a future for you?"

"Yeah it does, this school was founded on the bases that we needed an education in France." _So put that in your transcript and read it._

"Well, you've got a positive attitude off this school huh?"

"You got it! And to help one of my friends, Odd?" Cassidy asked for the DVD that Odd was about to look for. "He wants you to have this as a gift for you."

"Well that's really sweet," T.V. seemed to soften before his old personality crept back on him. "So now you know about this school from one of the students' mouths."

**-After Class-**

"Oh, no!" Jeremie took out his laptop.

"Activated tower, oh joy!" Cassidy sounded bored out of her mind. "XANA really needs to decide where to plot his towers. Mountain or ice!"

Jeremie nodded. "And how'd you know it was—" he stopped himself, because last time he argued with her, he was sorry for it. **(A/N: Check the Temptation chapter)** "Never mind."

"I'll warn Yumi!" Ulrich had his mobile out and ready in a second.

"And we won't miss Meatballs and Gravy day, I promise!" Cassidy nodded to Odd.

**-Lyoko-**

Everyone was ready to go to the activated tower in the Mountain Sector. They came across some Hornet problems, but no problems were too much for the Lyoko Warriors.

They took out eight out of nine Hornets, but the last one took a hike.

"BLOODY EVIL COWARD! RAVEN STARVER! BILGE RATS!" Cassidy shouted.

"BUNCHA CHICKENS!" Odd shouted with her.

"Weird, I guess XANA's not up to snuff today!" Yumi commented.

"But he can't be. We changed the battery, giving him and Aelita life. Aw, well," Cassidy shrugged. "Odd's favorite meal of the day is here."

"_Well, hurry up!"_ Jeremie's voice sounded pleased.

Everyone headed to the tower…

But then…the tower deactivated itself.

"XANA! Make up your mind, ice or mountain!" Cassidy yelled to the virtual "wind".

"Well, what does it mean, Cassidy and Jeremie," Aelita asked them.

"My powers suggest that XANA is having a hard time choosing sectors—ice or mountain. He'll choose ice, I believe, next time," Cassidy said.

Aelita nodded.

**-Back to the lab then-**

A tower activated…again.

"Ice Sector," Jeremie said. Then the tower deactivated…again.

"He'll put his final pin on the Ice Sector again, and XANA's mind will have been made by then," Cassidy said.

Jeremie took Cassidy's word for it. "Go to lunch, I'll stay here and try to work all this out! If anything happens, I'll give you a shout."

"Rhyming person," Cassidy muttered happily to Odd.

"I'll stay with you. With the two of us, it'll go faster," Aelita said.

**-Lunchtime without Jeremie and Aelita-**

T.V. cut in front of the line and was about to order Rosa around.

"_¡Consiga en línea y espere su vuelta como el resto de nosotros, usted cerdo egoísto!"_ Cassidy yelled at Thomas Vincent.

Those not fluent in Spanish were confused. Even Hervé was confused.

Yumi pulled Cassidy back and whispered in her ear, "What did you say?"

"I told him to get in line and wait like the rest of us. And I called him a selfish pig," Cassidy whispered back.

Yumi raised her brows in disapproval.

"I don't like T.V. I like television, but not Thomas Vincent," Cassidy explained. "I sensed every bad thing about him before his arrival. He cares only about himself. He thinks the world revolves around him, like Sissi."

Yumi nodded.

Thomas Vincent was shocked to hear that a student at Kadic could speak Spanish…and yet so fluently, too. He translated what she said and moved to the back of the line as Cassidy commanded.

"It worked?" Cassidy asked. "I thought it wouldn't work. It shouldn't have worked. I mean, my gosh, I—"

"Cassidy, calm down," Ulrich said. "If your plan worked, it worked. Nothing to get all worked up about."

"But it—"

Odd gave Cassidy a Gibbs-slap. She stopped babbling like an idiot. "Thanks Odd."

"De nada, señorita," Odd smiled.

**-With Sissi, Nicholas, and Hervé-**

"Any guy who had wheels like this I'd go out with in a heartbeat," Sissi put a finger on T.V's car.

Nicholas went off saying, "Okay, I'm out of here. I'm starving."

**-Back to the lab-**

The super-scan went to work. Jeremie and Aelita were trying to figure it out. Then a tower activated back up in the Ice Sector.

Aelita was getting a little worried. "It's starting up again. Should I tell the others?"

"Hang on, it might deactivate by itself again," Jeremie said.

The tower beeped and then…

**-The television satellites-**

**XANA flew from there into the sky.** The sky started to cloud.

**-Back to Ulrich, Odd, Cassidy, and Yumi-**

They were eating lunch.

**-Outside the cafeteria-**

A lone snowflake fell to the ground, followed by its comrades.

**-Back inside-**

"Look," Ulrich looked up from his meal, "It's snowing!"

Cassidy smiled and so did a lot of kids her age or younger or older.

"RIGHT ON!" Odd yelled—his mood was really getting good.

**-Factory trip :( -**

The super-scan was up again. The same tower had been detected for over an hour.

"Jeremie, the tower's still activated," Aelita said.

Jeremie looked. "Uh, oh, bad news. Maybe this time XANA _is_ attacking."

**-NOW IT'S TIME TO HAVE SOME FUN :)-**

Everyone was having fun. Jim tried to trample the kids' spirits but ended up whacked with a snowball, thrown by none other than the school principal.

Yumi raced by with two brown-haired chasers—snowballs abound—at her heels. They were laughing it up.

She answered her cell phone. "Yes, Jeremie." A pause as the two chasers found her and Odd found her too. She hung up her phone and told Ulrich, Cassidy, and Odd. "XANA's attacking."

Cassidy half-whined. "And Ulrich and I were about to let you have it."

The wind picked up. Then it was like everyone was hyped up on sugar and was on a mad dash to the boiler room.

Odd and Yumi found Milly and Tamiya and helped them inside the dorm entrance.

"Don't say it, I already know. We have to go to you-know-where and stop you-know-who," Cassidy frowned.

**-Factory-**

"_Jeremie, we're stuck at school because of the blizzard,"_ Yumi called him.

"A NIGHTMARE!" Jeremie yelled. "XANA's back to his old self."

**-Sissi and Hervé-**

They tried the door. "Closed, now what?" Hervé asked.

"F-f-follow me," Sissi stuttered.

They got into T.V's car, and Hervé tried to start it.

Finally it kicked. Sissi noticed, "Cool, the Subsonics." She put it in and Break Away played.

**-The dorm room entrance-**

Jim started handing out blankets and warm equipment. Joking to T.V. he said, "Here Mr. T.V. This will keep your hair in place."

Edna laughed at the ridiculous hat that T.V. had on.

Cassidy came over to her. "I know he's treating you like the worst behaved dog in history, but you don't have to take that. When/if you quit, give him a Gibbs slap and chew him out. That should make you feel better," She whispered gently.

Edna nodded.

Jim found his thermometer and showed it to Mr. Delmas. It was four degrees below zero outside and it was thirty-seven degrees inside.

"Thirty-seven?" Mr. Delmas was appalled. "Come on; let's go down to the boiler room."

Jim ordered everyone to follow suit.

**-Sissi and Hervé-**

"It's—a scientific fact that if we huddle together, we'll be warmer," Hervé was so desperately in love with Sissi but she was too busy stalking Ulrich to care.

He earned a slap. "It's a scientific fact that a good _slap_ will keep your cheek warm," Sissi was outraged.

**-To Edna and the rest-**

She turned her camera on to film the kids. Mr. Vincent didn't approve.

"Edna, stop wasting film—an unbelievable deep freeze has taken hold of the city and what are you shooting? Three br**s in a basement! **(A/N: I'll tell you the word at the end of this chapter. End A/N)** It's not even PG-13! People expect spectacular TV from T.V. So let's get out of this _rat hole_ and go where the action is—the city!"

"Not with me! I quit!" Edna said. Then she took on the advice of Cassidy and Gibbs-slapped him and chewed him out.

After, she went to join Cassidy and the others. "Thank you. And yeah, I do feel better."

Cassidy smiled.

T.V. took Edna's camera and started to make his way out of the boiler room. "Can't have cold feet on this job."

Jim tried to stop him. "You can't go outside; it's forty below out there."

"My car keys!" He demanded.

Jim couldn't find them and T.V. got really angry and left.

"Did you hear that?" Ulrich said. "Forty below and there's no reason for XANA to stop there!"

"The only solution is…" Odd said.

"For us to go to Lyoko," Cassidy finished in her heavy white coat with fake fur around the hood. "We'll scope the rooms for warmer equipment then we'll try to go to the factory."

Then a vision flashed in her eyes. She shook out of it and gasped.

"What is it?" Ulrich said.

"Um…nothing, just a bit of a cold chill—no joke," Cassidy lied.

They snuck out of the boiler room.

**-With Hervé and Sissi-**

Hervé was getting unintentionally tired. Sissi got worried.

"I'm warning you now Hervé, if you fall asleep, I'll slap you again," she threatened.

Just then, the darkish part of Hervé's hair turned white with snow and an angry T.V. came in.

"What do you think you're doing in _my car?_" He demanded. "_Get out_ _of here!"_

Sissi was shivering. "Hey, you're not going to leave us in this blizzard are you?"

"Fine, I'll drop you off. Get in the back and don't get my soft, leather seats dirty, got it?" Thomas said.

He then closed the door and started driving.

**-Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, and Cassidy-**

They were running to the factory, but then stopped when T.V's car crashed into a tree.

"Did you see that?" Ulrich asked his friends.

"None in the group are blind to this, Ulrich," Cassidy said. "So yeah, we saw it!"

"We gotta go and help them," Yumi said.

Everyone slid down to help T.V. and his unintentional passengers.

**-With Jim and everyone-**

"S-sir," a boy named Michael asked.

"Yes, Michael?" Jim asked.

"How c-cold is it?" Michael shivered.

Jim held the hand holding the thermometer to steady it and said, "Fifty-eight degrees below zero outside. T-twenty-three degrees in here!"

That worried the principal.

**-Factory-**

"A deadly cold snap has hit the city, which was buried with ice and snow in a matter of minutes," the news reporter on the screen said. "The authorities have put the emergency cold weather…"

Jeremie panicked. "Oh, no!"

**-To Ulrich, Odd, Cassidy, Yumi, Sissi, Hervé and T.V.-**

They helped Hervé and Sissi out. Then T.V. came out, cold and stuttering, "It-it wasn't my fault!"

Cassidy interrupted him, "Get inside before I let you have my _anger_."

T.V. nodded and led Sissi and Hervé inside.

Suddenly there was a sickening _crack_ and Yumi pushed Ulrich away at the same time that Cassidy pushed Yumi away.

Yumi and Ulrich were shoved into the snow. There was a sharp yelp and they found a minute later, Cassidy under the tree.

"Cassidy?" Yumi came over and rubbed some of the snow off her.

"Are you okay?" Ulrich asked.

"This is where I hate my visions," Cassidy came up.

"We'll get you out of there!" Ulrich said. The three pushed with all their might, but they couldn't move the tree off her.

"Odd, get to Lyoko! Aelita needs you!" Cassidy panted a little. "Just think of hot things while you get to the factory."

Odd looked to her as if to say, "Are you crazy?"

"Just GO!" Cassidy forced out her words. "I'll be okay, just go."

Odd gave Ulrich and Yumi a shivery "Good luck" and ran to go to the factory.

Ulrich went off and Yumi informed Cassidy what he was thinking about doing.

"Well, if I do survive this, let's hope that my coat was thick enough," Cassidy smiled a little.

Yumi nodded.

**-Jeremie and Aelita-**

"We have no choice, Jeremie," Aelita said.

"But that's exactly what XANA's waiting for, Aelita. For you to go to Lyoko alone so he can steal your memory," Jeremie argued.

"If someone doesn't go and deactivate that tower, Yumi, Cassidy, Ulrich, and Odd will die of cold and the entire city with them," Aelita sounded worried.

"Yeah, I guess you're right, I'll launch the virtualization process," Jeremie turned to go to the computer.

**-With Ulrich and Yumi-**

Ulrich found a chain and made a pulley system with Yumi's help.

Cassidy was still awake, though the two could tell she wanted to sleep. "You can sleep later," Ulrich assured her.

They pulled on the chain. The tree lifted a little, but they slipped and it crashed on Cassidy, making her yell in pain. Her senses were knocked awake.

"This truly and utterly stinks on ice," Cassidy groaned into the snow.

"Look who's talking," Ulrich muttered.

"Touché," Cassidy said.

**-With Jeremie and Aelita-**

Aelita was on her way to the tower on the OverBike. _"Look out Aelita, Hornets on the way!"_

"I can't see anything for now," Aelita said.

A shadow passed over her. Aelita looked up and then saw two more monsters following its leader. "They're not Hornets; they're Flying Mantas."

"_Huh, but they never leave Sector 5,"_ Jeremie sounded appalled.

Aelita gunned the OverBike as fast as it would go. "We have to face facts. XANA is getting more and more powerful."

"_About face, Aelita, FAST!"_ Jeremie ordered.

The Mantas surrounded the tower, and as soon as Aelita about faced, she saw the Schyphozoa. "No!"

**-With Jim-**

He put the last piece of wood in the flames. "Well, that should do it."

Mr. Delmas was not as sure though.

**-With Odd-**

He was doing a great job, thinking of hot stuff. He ran down the list a thousand times.

_I'm feeling warm already,_ Odd smiled a little as he went inside the factory.

**-With Aelita-**

Aelita turned away from the Schyphozoa easily, but the Mantas were following her.

Then…

"Flying mines," Aelita had to turn around again.

**-Ulrich, Yumi, and Cassidy-**

The two pulled on the now white with snow chain, but then it broke.

Ulrich and Yumi pleaded with Cassidy to stay with them.

"Stay with us," Ulrich sounded like he was whining.

Cassidy picked her head off the ground. "I'm not going anywhere!"

"Don't be brave," Yumi said.

"I'm not right at the moment," Cassidy softly retorted.

**-Lyoko-**

The Mantas put a wall of mines right to the jellyfish-like monster.

Aelita then used her creativity to try to get herself out of the predicament she was in at the moment.

**-Jim and the other kids and faculty-**

"Okay, no sleeping," Jim tried to keep the already tired crowd from falling asleep.

He decided to tell a story.

T.V. almost stole Milly and Tamiya's blanket.

**-Factory-**

Odd was getting colder and colder as he neared the elevator.

**-Jim's keeping a good story; and T.V just got served; next scene-**

Aelita got caught by the Schyphozoa.

**-Ulrich and Yumi-**

They were trying to keep Cassidy from falling asleep. "Please, hang on," Ulrich begged.

"Odd's probably on Lyoko already," Yumi shivered.

**-Odd-**

He fainted he said the last word, "Magma!"

Jeremie noticed and helped him.

**-Aelita-**

She was running hard, trying to stay away from the jellyfish-like monster.

**-Odd's where now?-**

Jeremie put him in the scanner and ran to the elevator to take it to the lab and virtualize Odd.

**-Aelita-**

Aelita got caught and her memory was starting to drain.

**-Jeremie-**

He virtualized Odd.

**-Lyoko-**

Odd landed on his OverBoard. "Oh, no—more ice."

He was a little groggy, but he got out of it in no time.

He went over to Aelita and the Schyphozoa.

**-With Cassidy's situation-**

"Leave me," she muttered.

"You're not getting rid of us that easily," Ulrich cracked a bit.

Cassidy smiled.

**-To Odd's quest-**

Odd stopped the Schyphozoa just in time.

Now it was time to evade the Mantas after he caught Aelita.

**-Jim's story got interrupted; next scene-**

Odd swerved back and forth to avoid getting hit.

Then the Mantas surrounded the tower with more flying mines.

Odd told Aelita to hang on tight as he swerved around the mines.

**-Cassidy-**

"Please," Ulrich and Yumi pleaded. "Cassidy, don't give up."

Cassidy was now trying to sleep.

"We need you to fight against XANA!" Ulrich said. "And to warn us if we are about to do a stupid thing or not."

**-Lyoko-**

The two were avoiding mines and laser shots like pros. Aelita warned, "Odd, the Flying Mantas are behind us."

Odd dove down to hover above the ground but below the fray. One of the Mantas got destroyed.

They got up again when it was better then another Manta got in the way. He used his laser arrow on one of the monster's fins and it corkscrewed down and got destroyed, leaving a clear passage to the tower.

**-Cassidy's situation-**

Yumi and Ulrich both let a tear fall from their faces, only to feel it freeze in place. "We need you!"

**-To Odd, Aelita and Jeremie-**

Aelita ran in the tower and deactivated it.

Odd got devirtualized by a Manta.

**-Back to Cassidy's situation-**

The sun came and melted some of the snow away.

Ulrich and Yumi "woke up". "Cassidy?"

They checked her breathing but it was too light to tell if she was breathing or not.

Ulrich tried his cell phone, but it was dead. Yumi's was too.

They both cried out in anguish.

**-Back to the lab-**

Odd took the elevator up and said to Jeremie. "Jeremie, Hurry up. Launch a return to the past! Cassidy's in trouble!"

Jeremie nodded. "Return to the Past, Now!"

**-Back in time-**

Cassidy was alive. "Just tired," she muttered.

"I got us all excused from classes," Jeremie said. "We can take care of Cassidy for a little while."

"I can move too," Cassidy smiled a little.

"Thanks for saving my life back there," Yumi said.

"You're welcome," Cassidy yawned.

**A/N: The censored word is brats.**


	24. Whoa! MAJOR Déjà vu

**Disclaimer: do I have to say it? Check chap. 23/22.**

**Cassidy is owned by me.**

Aelita was having another nightmare.

Some men in black suits were chasing her at the Hermitage.

Aelita woke up screaming. Cassidy did too. As Aelita walked over to the bathroom, Cassidy followed her to defend her against Sissi.

Splashing cold water on her face, Aelita was surprised to see Sissi come in.

"Was that you screaming, huh?"

"Sissi, leave Aelita alone!" Cassidy growled. "She's having a rough night. Now go to sleep, unless you want Jim in the girls' bathroom at four o'clock in the morning."

Aelita hugged Cassidy and sobbed some relieved sobs. Cassidy smiled sympathetically and gave her a gentle-but-firm hug. Sissi left the two girls then.

Jim came in a minute later. "What's going on here?" he asked.

"Nothing, Jim. Aelita is having a rough night right now, and I'm helping making her feel better," Cassidy said.

"Okay," Jim said.

Cassidy led Aelita back to their dorm room. Jeremie opened the door to his dorm. "Aelita, Cassidy, what's going on?"

"It's nothing," Aelita said.

Some of the students popped their heads out.

"Now, go to sleep or something," Cassidy sighed. "We won't be able to do anything tomorrow if we are out of energy."

Soon it was lights out.

**-The next morning-**

Cassidy's head was swarming with stuff.

"Still dating over the internet, Odd?" She asked.

"Yeah," Odd said.

"My mom met my real dad over the internet, and from the word go they married in 1999 and in 2001 had my young sister," Cassidy said.

"How do you know all that?" Odd asked.

"I was there for their wedding, and when my mom was pregnant with my sister, I went to my grandma's house where the next morning she gave me the news," Cassidy smiled, head still swarming with visions.

Meanwhile, Aelita was confiding in Jeremie. "It was daytime, there were these men in black coming after me. It was horrible."

"I sensed this happening," Cassidy sighed as if grieved. "It has something to do with the Hermitage. I know it!"

"You must've had a nightmare," Yumi said. "You shouldn't get all worked up about it. It happens to everyone."

Cassidy sighed, feeling ignored.

"Yeah, that's right," Odd smiled. "Happens to me all the time. One night, I dreamt I was on a date with Sissi."

"Watch it, Odd. It might happen today!" Cassidy said.

Odd's eyebrows shot up. "WHAT? Are you SERIOUS?"

"It's possible," Cassidy shrugged.

"Okay, it's time to get wet," Ulrich said.

"And this time, Jeremie can't get out of this one," Cassidy sighed, even though she knew it would happen. "I can't either."

"'No more dumb excuses, you hear?'" Jeremie said in the imitation of Jim.

"Great!" Odd smiled to Jeremie. "We'll finally get to see that buff, athletic body of yours! I can't wait."

"You are going to be shocked," Cassidy proclaimed.

**-Pool time—no, not billiards-**

Jim went on and on about the facts of water…with Cassidy helping him with the course.

"How much water is the human body made up of?" Jim questioned.

"50-70%, Jim," Cassidy answered with her pink tankini on.

Odd and Ulrich were trying to find out Odd's mystery girl.

"And what does Archimedes' principal state about water?" Jim asked.

"That a body immersed in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the displaced fluid," Aelita answered calmly.

"Well done, McGuire and Stones," Jim nodded his approval at them. Then continued with the fact that no one should be afraid of the water then listed a scenario.

Then Ulrich suggested to Odd in a whisper, "What makes you think it's a girl from our class? It might just as easily be from Milly or Tamiya."

"Which reminds me of when I was a salvage diver," Jim said.

"You used to be a salvage diver, Jim?" Nicholas asked Jim.

"I'd rather not talk about it," Jim said offhandedly.

"Azra, no," Odd said in a whisper. "No way! She's not a first-year student either I forgot."

Ulrich smiled. "Maybe she's in Yumi's class." He laughed a little. "Maybe it's Anaïs Fiquet. Next to her, you're a real shrimp."

That got Jim. "Stern and Della Robbia, I'm sorry if I'm _boring_ you. Alright on deck. Let's see what you can do."

They got on the platform as Aelita and Cassidy, at the same time, grabbed their heads in pain.

Jeremie noticed. "You okay, ladies?" he asked.

Cassidy and Aelita opened their eyes. "Uh-huh!"

Odd and Ulrich got ready and, at Jim's whistle blow, dove into the pool.

Cassidy and Aelita then had another chain-vision share. **(A/N:** **Check the Mister Pück Chapter)**

The Men in Black were chasing Aelita. She nearly made it to the outside.

In the real world, Cassidy tried holding onto the bench to keep from falling into the pool.

But her hand slipped…

Aelita and Cassidy both fell into the pool.

That caused a lot of panic.

"AELITA! CASSIDY!" Jeremie yelled.

He and Bastien jumped into the pool and rescued both girls.

**-Aelita and Cassidy's dorm-**

"This time it was much more detailed," Aelita said. "There were still the Men in Black, but I was at the Hermitage."

"And somehow I slipped into Aelita's visions when she slipped into hers, I had nothing to do with it," Cassidy nodded. "I wonder why I slip into people's visions, but I don't have any answers. Not even Sector 5 knows."

Jeremie authorized a Sector 5 mission to try to find out why Cassidy was psychic. There were no results, however, leaving the female cat-warrior devastated. "I'm psychic forever?" she had said.

"I'm sorry!" Jeremie sounded grim that day.

"Then I should have left when I found out I was too dangerous," Cassidy had ran off and locked herself in the girls' bathroom for two hours until Yumi calmed her down.

**-Back in the Present-**

"The doctor said you two passed out from the cold," Yumi said.

"But we—in the group—know that isn't true." Cassidy bound off the last stitch in Jeremie's scarf and put some baby-sky blue mix fringes on the ends. "Ulrich's is now online," She muttered to herself.

"That may be, but what about these visions? Where are they coming from, Jeremie and Cassidy?" Aelita wondered.

"One word: XANA!" Cassidy finished casting on the correct number of stitches for Ulrich's scarf to begin.

Jeremie looked to her. _Sounds like I'm not the only one that gets crazy about XANA from time to time,_ he thought. "The best thing for you two is to get some rest now. We'll talk about these things later."

"Right, I got to go. I'm already late." Yumi checked her phone.

"Us, too; Mrs. Hertz is going to kill us," Jeremie said, checking his watch.

Cassidy nodded. "Plus, I have to cancel my date with William tonight. He wanted me to get an ice cream with him while we walked underneath the stars. I curse my vision-shares. They led me into the deep, this time."

"Wait a minute," Odd was internet dating.

"It's Sissi, Odd," Cassidy's eyes flitted a little spark-flash.

"I thought you were _kidding_," Odd said.

"Maybe," she let that sound as if it was a longer word than necessary.

He looked at her with a growly expression.

"See you in a bit, girls. I'll come back again to check on you two after science." Jeremie let all the other warrior members out, but left Cassidy and Aelita in.

"Just remember to tell Sissi that a pound of mercury does not weigh a ton," Cassidy said.

Jeremie shut the door as Cassidy and Aelita waved good-bye.

Something was still bothering Aelita, and affecting Cassidy too.

Aelita looked to Cassidy and she looked back at her.

"You thinking what I'm thinking," Aelita asked her friend and roommate.

"You bet, Hermitage mission," Cassidy seemed to smile a little as she put the rubber needle protectors on her project.

They both got up and got dressed.

**-Classroom-**

"Hey, can't you look where you're going, you clumsy dork!" Sissi got slammed into by Odd.

"Oh, sorry, Sissi, I mistook you for a door post!" he said.

He got to his seat and started in on the internet conversation. He then said, "Wow, she's in our class. She says she has science right now with Mrs. Hertz."

Jeremie grabbed the computer away from Odd. "Odd, pass me the computer, I forgot to check something."

Turned out there was an **activated tower.**

"Oh, no, activated tower," Jeremie said.

"Cassidy's plan?" Ulrich asked him.

Jeremie nodded.

Odd fake-fainted in front of the whole class and Mrs. Hertz.

"ODD!" Ulrich fake-screamed.

Jeremie and Ulrich got under Odd and Jeremie said, "We'll take him to the infirmary, okay?"

Mrs. Hertz merely nodded as the two boys took the third away.

As soon as they were out of the room and out of the science building, Odd faked reawakening. "Who knew fake fainting was so much fun!" he laughed with the expression of "That was fun!" on his face.

**-Aelita and Cassidy-**

They were walking to the Hermitage on foot. None of them said a word as they walked.

Both of them saw what Aelita saw.

Cassidy and Aelita got to the Hermitage. A shiver went down their backs, but the two ignored it.

They went inside.

Aelita saw what it looked like from what may have been many years ago and back again. Cassidy held her friend's hand.

"I don't know why we share the same visions, Cassidy." Aelita looked to her.

"Neither do I know. And I'm not even related to you." Cassidy looked at Aelita with eyes full of sympathy. "It may be something to do with my accidental time stop or the time I defended you from Sissi that first time. I don't know. I just don't know."

Aelita and Cassidy looked around the rooms.

They went to the living room and they both got caught in a vision-share in the second time of the day.

The living room looked so clean in the vision. And someone was playing piano.

A gray-haired man sat at the piano. "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" was playing.

"That's Franz Hopper!" Cassidy murmured so only she could hear it.

And along her visions, Cassidy swore she heard a little girl saying, "Daddy!"

She looked around and tried to find the so-called "little girl" then she realized something. But she didn't know if she should tell Aelita and the gang or not.

The vision cleared from both girls and the living room was back to being dirty and unorganized.

"Calm down, Aelita," Aelita commanded herself.

Cassidy's stomach whirled. This was something to put in her visions notebook.

**-To the boys-**

"Warn Yumi," Jeremie said to the two after they clowned around. "I'll go get Aelita and Cassidy. We'll meet up at the factory."

**-Back to the two exploring girls-**

The two went up to the pink bedroom where they had found Mister Pück in a previous adventure.

They saw another vision. The pink bedroom was once clean.

Aelita put a hand to her head. "Calm down!" she commanded herself calmly.

Cassidy closed her eyes tightly. Maybe it would go away.

**-Jeremie-**

Jeremie knocked on the door. "Aelita, Cassidy!"

He opened the door only to find two empty beds. In Cassidy's bed was the start of Ulrich's scarf. In Aelita's—Mister Pück.

He also noted that Cassidy left her cell phone at her room.

Jeremie dialed for Aelita's cell phone.

**-Back to Aelita and Cassidy-**

Aelita's cell phone rang, bringing both girls back to reality.

Cassidy opened her eyes and smiled a little. It went away.

Aelita picked up her cell phone. "Jeremie!"

"_Aelita, where are you and Cassidy?" _Jeremie asked.

"At the Hermitage," Aelita said.

"_But you two should be resting!"_ Jeremie's voice entered Cassidy's ears too.

"These visions are haunting the both of us!" Aelita was feeling scared. "We have to know where they are coming from."

"_Right, anyway, listen, you two ought to know that XANA is on the offensive,"_ Jeremie said.

"I know, Jeremie," Cassidy sounded a little ticked-off.

"_The others are already at the factory,"_ Jeremie continued.

"And Aelita's not a little child, Jeremie," Cassidy said into the phone. "We'll get to the factory. Not to worry!"

"_Okay, but hurry!"_ Jeremie hastened.

Aelita hung up her phone.

At that moment Aelita and Cassidy vision-shared. The Men in Black were underneath the then-installed-and-clean window, causing the both of them to shriek.

They both backed up and the vision cleared, but it wasn't over yet. Another share hit. "Aelita! Come quickly," a voice beckoned the two girls. They turned around. It was Franz Hopper.

"Hello. Is anyone there?" Aelita asked as the share ended.

They went back to the start. Aelita froze and shouted with fear.

The Men in Black were there.

"THIS WAY!" Cassidy commanded and ran with Aelita like the wind.

"Don't look back near the boiler; we need to get to the factory!" Cassidy panted.

They raced outside. Another vision share initiated. "This way!" said Franz.

As soon as the share was done, they went into the sewer shortcut.

As soon as Aelita shut the door, Cassidy smiled. "We made it. Whew, that was invigorating. Let's _not_ do that again. Agreed?"

Aelita nodded.

**-Lab-**

"Just thirty seconds more and you can head for the scanners!" Jeremie said.

**-Factory entrance-**

Cassidy ran down the ramp while Aelita swung on the rope. Cassidy still wasn't used to rope sliding yet, but the gang let her do the ramp route anyway.

"Nearly there!" Cassidy nodded.

Aelita had a flashback.

**FLASHBACK #7**

_She had won a prize to do something. But she didn't know what that something was._

**END OF FLASHBACK**

They headed down to the lab.

**-To the lab-**

"What are Cassidy and Aelita up to?" Ulrich wondered.

"They'd said they'd be right over. I should've gone to pick them up," Jeremie was worried.

The elevator doors opened. "Oh, there you are at last. Hey Cinderella and Beauty, we sent midnight and Beast on the docks," Odd joked.

"Aelita, Cassidy, are you two okay?" Jeremie asked.

"We had some more visions. We saw a man and it was…" Aelita got cut off.

"Who?"

"Franz Hopper!" Cassidy and Aelita said together.

"Huh? Are you sure?" Yumi asked.

Cassidy nodded. "I know what Aelita and I saw. We kept vision-sharing until we exited the Hermitage and into the sewers."

"I know it sounds crazy, but I was sure it was him!" Aelita came after Cassidy.

"What if this is XANA's offensive?" Odd pointed out.

"What?" Aelita asked.

"I mean these strange visions and vision-shares."

Cassidy put on her "Oh jeez, I'm in trouble!" face and squeezed her eyes shut. "We have to d—"

Jeremie interrupted her. "Exactly! XANA is perfectly capable of stimulating your cerebral cortex through the virus/link that links you to him, Aelita. And to stimulate your cerebral cortex with vision shares through your power, Cassidy."

Cassidy sat down as if it were Story Time.

"And from that, he can paradoxically simulate in you two an artificial sleep, and involuntarily psychic powers that goes with it!" Jeremie said.

"In short, you mean, XANA's showing you two free movies!" Odd smiled.

"Except that my powers came the same day I came to Kadic. I never had powers before Lyoko or before I came to Kadic," Cassidy squeezed her eyes shut harder and stood up.

Jeremie nodded his understanding.

"But why?" Ulrich asked Jeremie.

"Let's not hang around to find out. Let's just go deactivate the tower!" Odd said.

Soon everyone was on Lyoko's desert sector.

Cassidy had fear written in her virtual structure. "I have a bad feeling about this, guys."

The ninja warrior patted the cat warrior and worrier on the back. "Oh, relax, Cassidy, we do this all the time."

"At least No hace calor on Lyoko," Cassidy sighed.

"No hace what?" Odd asked her.

"Calor, I just said 'It's not hot outside'!"

"I see," Odd said. "So, tengo frío means…"

"I'm feeling cold or I'm cold."

Odd nodded.

As soon as Jeremie materialized the vehicles, everyone, minus Aelita and Cassidy, got on his or her ride.

They were nervous. Yumi snapped the girls out of the thoughts. "Coming, Aelita?"

Aelita jumped on the OverWing with the geisha. Cassidy got on her Over-Kartbed.

They raced to the tower on their vehicles.

"What monsters are ahead this eve?" Odd asked.

"Um," Cassidy concentrated. "Some Bloks and a Tarantula."

"I see them," Odd said.

Indeed they were there.

"Odd, you handle the Bloks. Yumi and I will take care of the Tarantula. Cassidy, protect Aelita from the Schyphozoa," Ulrich commanded.

Cassidy nodded and got out of her vehicle to stand guard next to Aelita.

They turned to see the edge of the sector, looked each other straight in the eye and shared a thought. _We have to find out where these vision shares and visions are coming from._

Aelita and Cassidy nodded to each other.

"_What are you two doing?"_ Jeremie asked.

"We're playing Tic-Tac-Toe. What does it look like? I'm protecting Aelita from the Schyphozoa, Jeremie," Cassidy said in a joking fashion.

"_Sometimes, I swear that Odd rubs off on you, Cassidy,_" Jeremie's voice seemed to smile.

"Welcome to Lyoko," Cassidy sighed, half-sarcastic.

Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich were working to clear the path.

Odd got rid of one Blok using his OverBoard and his laser arrows.

Yumi and Ulrich worked together to get rid of the Tarantula. Ulrich used his Super-Sprint to confuse it and Yumi used her acrobatics and her fan to get rid of the Tarantula.

Aelita and Cassidy then started walking up to the edge of the sector.

"_What's going on?" _Jeremie asked.

They got toward it and the Transporter came up.

"_The Transporter!"_ Jeremie mused._ "But I didn't call it up!"_

Cassidy squeezed her eyes shut. Aelita kept her mouth shut but comforted her nervous friend.

"_Aelita, Cassidy, what are you doing?"_ Jeremie asked them.

"I'm sorry, Jeremie; but we want some answers. We have to find out where these visions and vision shares are coming from." The Transporter engulfed Aelita and Cassidy and took them to Sector 5.

"_Aelita, Cassidy, don't do it! It's a TRAP!" _Jeremie said.

Ulrich got shot by the Blok and Odd and Yumi were trying to get rid of it. Finally, Yumi got rid of it.

"_XANA succeeded. Cassidy and Aelita have gone to Sector 5. You have to get there fast!"_ Jeremie's voice panicked over the Desert Sector.

As soon as everyone got to the edge of the sector (Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi), Jeremie entered the SCIPIO code and they were on their way to find their two comrades.

Soon they were in Sector 5.

"_Holosphere system connected," _Jeremie announced.

Odd lost balance and was about to fall.

Soon the room stopped spinning and everyone ran to the Core Zone.

"The corridor's still there!" Odd said.

"Of course it is, Cassidy and Aelita have already been through this part," Ulrich said.

"_And that's because the countdown's disconnected. Cassidy must've stopped it," _Jeremie said.

"Einstein," Odd cracked, "Don't worry about Cassidy, just worry about Aelita. Cassidy has a tube that can turn into a weapon, remember?"

"_Oh, that's right,"_ Jeremie sounded, _"I forgot."_

"And she must be either in the Elevator room or the Celestial Dome!" Yumi said.

**-Where Cassidy and Aelita are-**

They were in the elevator room, but Cassidy stopped Aelita. "I am worried, Aelita. What if I get expelled from the group? What if Jeremie yells at me for being a bad protector? What if you get attacked by the Schyphozoa? What if—"

"Cassidy, calm down," Aelita soothed. "We'll be okay. We'll get the answers we need and get out of here."

Cassidy was about to respond when…

"THERE THEY ARE!" a voice yelled.

_Yumi?_ Cassidy thought.

"_What were you thinking," _Jeremie asked the two girls.

They didn't respond, and jumped when the elevator was just below them.

"_Aelita, Cassidy!"_ Jeremie shouted.

"Remember what I said, Jeremie; worry only about Aelita, don't worry about Cassidy!" Odd tried soothing.

"_The elevator will be open again,"_ Jeremie said. _"I've warned them not to collect any data."_

"Okay," Yumi said.

"_Wait a minute; they're doing what I've asked them not to do!"_

"We'll be there in a minute, Einstein," Ulrich said.

**-With Cassidy and Aelita-**

Cassidy was on lookout for the Schyphozoa, any Mantas, the rare Creeper, and their friends.

"_You know I see you!"_ Jeremie warned.

She clamped her jaws shut and blinked slowly.

"Found them!" Ulrich's voice came into her ears.

Cassidy fought with all her might to not cry on Lyoko.

"What were you thinking," Yumi asked the two, interrupting the data collection.

Aelita and Cassidy stayed silent, but the latter fell to her knees and hung her head guiltily.

"Cassidy?" Yumi was concerned.

"This is all my fault," she said.

"What?" Yumi and Aelita raised their brows.

"If I never came into the group at all, this thing wouldn't have happened," Cassidy frowned.

"No!" Odd and Ulrich chimed in.

"_Cassidy, with or without you, we get along great. You saved Yumi's life once!"_

"Thrice, Jeremie," Cassidy didn't put her head up. "The Schyphozoa was supposed to attack Yumi, but I stepped in. And she was supposed to be the one under that tree, but I pushed her out of the way."

"See? You do wonders for the group. Who else would laugh at my jokes when no one else would?" Odd smiled.

Cassidy raised her head a little. "Me?"

"And who would help us avoid major blunders?" Ulrich asked.

"Me!" Cassidy got up, an edge more confident.

"And who would help us get an A, B, or C in our tests and worksheets?" Yumi asked.

"ME!" Cassidy was more confident. "LET'S go back to the Desert Sector and deactivate that torre!"

"Now you're talking!" Yumi smiled.

Jeremie materialized the vehicles and everyone got out of Sector 5 and back to the Desert Sector.

Aelita then deactivated the tower.

**-Back to school, EVERYBODY! The next morning-**

Aelita and Cassidy got to the table. "Hey, Aelita and Cassidy, well? Anymore visions or vision-shares?" Yumi asked with a smile.

"Strangely no!" Cassidy said. "But I'm glad they—the vision shares—are gone! They've caused enough trouble as it was."

"Gone!" Aelita smiled.

"You see? It was just a trap, made in XANA!" Jeremie said.

"I guess, but we would still like to know where those memories came from," Aelita continued.

"I was up all night with my visions notebook. I had to draw them and write them down," Cassidy smiled. "But I finally conked out by midnight."

"I think that XANA seemed to make the whole thing up," Ulrich inputted.

"I don't think they were made up, Ulrich. I have a funny feeling about this. Something 'too weird' quoting Mathias!" Cassidy squeezed her eyes shut as she ate.

"Maybe Cassidy's right. She is the psychic in the group!" Odd said.

"That is ingenious, Odd," Cassidy nodded.

"The memories could have come from someone else," Yumi suggested. "Implanted in you two by XANA in order to scare you, Aelita, or to drain your confidence, Cassidy."

"That could be it!" Jeremie nodded a little.

"It was very strange though," the pink-haired girl said. "We were under the impression that we were reliving the events that I was seeing."

"That happened," Cassidy nodded.

"That, however, can't be," Jeremie looked to the two girls.

"Yes, I know," Aelita said for the two of them.

"I wasn't kidding about yesterday, Odd, it _is_ Sissi. My visions are back to the present now!" Cassidy said.

Odd freaked out. "What a nightmare!"

Everyone laughed. If someone could predict something for Odd to freak out over, it was Cassidy.


	25. Someone has Vertigo

**Code Lyoko isn't mine. Cassidy is mine. And that's that. Simple enough, right? Anyone follow?**

**-Sector 5's arena-**

The transporter arrived and dropped off the five Lyoko Warriors.

**-Lab-**

"Holosphere system connected," Jeremie announced.

**-Back to the Arena-**

"_Welcome to Sector 5."_ Jeremie told the warriors.

"I can tell by the mighty blue," Cassidy sighed. "And we're going to find something for the antivirus/breaker research, right?"

"_You guessed it, Cassidy!"_

"The wall's going to open any second now," Yumi said.

"We're ready and willing." The female cat warrior smiled with confidence.

Soon the wall opened up. "Let's go!" Yumi smiled.

The five warriors ran to the corridor. "Ready for this, Cassidy," Ulrich smirked.

"Ulrich, stop, I know what you're thinking. Don't make me devirtualize you before this Sector 5 mission is out. If you do, you'll go back to Jeremie," Cassidy threatened.

The walls opened.

**-Lab-**

The countdown was ticking and Jeremie was getting a hint worried. "Three minutes to find the key; GO!"

**-Sector 5-O-**

"We got this, Jeremie," Cassidy almost rolled her eyes. "Like Ulrich said before Aelita was materialized, 'it's a piece of cake'!"

They ran down the steps and into the Core Zone, the key just out of reach.

The wall behind them rose, making everyone look. "Looks like SCIPIO won't help us here," Cassidy muttered.

"The doors are in the wrong place," Odd added.

The Creepers came. "Here come our old friends," Yumi said sarcastically.

"They don't seem to recognize us," Cassidy smoothly replied.

"Creepers, they just can't stay away from us." Odd lightly and playfully punched the brown-haired bespectacled girl in the arm.

"Definitely," Cassidy nodded.

"_Remember, guys, the clock is running,"_ Jeremie reminded the whole of the group. _"I found the key at 2:00 directly above Yumi and Aelita."_

Everyone assumed their stances.

"That's a job for a…" Ulrich almost finished his sentence, when Cassidy scowled at him.

"I'm going, but don't blame me when your sense of balance catches up to you, Ulrich," she growled. There was something behind her words, but Ulrich couldn't quite catch it.

Cassidy turned her tube into a .22 revolver.

"A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do," she sighed. "A woman's work is never done, et cetera et cetera."

She began her ascent.

Odd got shot in the stomach, and Yumi did the false "lady in peril" trick with Ulrich. All the while, though, Yumi had a small feeling in her stomach. The same feeling when she did that trick reminded her of her friend.

She thought it was just her memories acting as a reminder to her.

Ulrich ran up to the Creeper, who was looking at Yumi at the moment.

Cassidy jumped up onto the next platform. _This is why I can be useful without using my visions. That is so swell._

She used a skill that she knew Odd would have used if he were the cat warrior and she the ninja to get up to a higher platform.

The Creeper came around to Ulrich and shot his katana out of his hand.

Cassidy came up to a narrower platform. She shot the Creeper about to shoot her without looking behind her. Unloading the virtual slug and keeping herself going, she was almost to the key mechanism. _Lucky for us, later on Jeremie and Aelita will deactivate this feature, therefore leaving us without stopping the countdown—for there will be no countdown feature._

Ulrich grabbed his sword, and the Creeper was about to fire when Yumi jumped up with a cry of, "Not so fast, dummy!" and got rid of it.

Cassidy jumped up the platforms and almost to the key mechanism. _"Cassidy, how are you doing?"_ Jeremie wondered.

"I wish you were in my place, but let's just say I'm hopping to it, if you know what I mean," Cassidy coiled up her strength for the final jump.

A Creeper came up from behind Cassidy. Aelita noticed. "Cassidy!"

"Don't worry, I got this," Cassidy shot the Creeper from behind her, jumped, and hit the key mechanism.

As soon as the door opened, Cassidy joined up with her friends. "Ulrich?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't you ever set this up with me again!" She was still ticked-off.

"Okay," Ulrich kept his trademark frown on. "I'm sorry."

"_Nice one,"_ Jeremie said.

"I'm not acrobatic, but thank Heaven there is Lyoko," Cassidy smirked.

Everyone ran to the elevator room. As soon as Aelita spotted the elevator, Ulrich yelled, "NOW!"

The group jumped onto the elevator and headed for the Celestial Dome. Aelita went up to the interface. "I'm connected, Jeremie."

"_Come on, Aelita. We gotta gather data before the flying Mantas come!"_ Jeremie pushed.

"Jeremie, she will get the data as fast as she can go," Cassidy said. "Besides, do you want Aelita to make a mistake, or get it right?"

"_The second one."_

"Well, she might make a mistake if you keep bugging her," Cassidy nodded.

"_The Mantas are about to hatch in five, four, three, two, one, NOW!"_ Jeremie announced.

"We got this, Jeremie," Cassidy muttered.

Three Mantas emerged from the wall. Odd was happy, even though he couldn't see them. "Yvonne, Shirley, and Priscilla are born."

"Since when are you naming the Mantas?" Ulrich asked.

"I have no idea," Odd shrugged.

"Hey, Jeremie, I don't see any flying Mantas," Yumi looked around.

Cassidy closed her eyes and concentrated. Pointing her gun blindly behind her, she shot her gun at a Creeper and it exploded.

Casting her senses out further, her senses pinpointed and spotted the Mantas.

"They may come from the other end of the sector," she opened her eyes. "It's accurate, but it's better than nothing."

"Done, Jeremie, you can take over again," Aelita sent the data.

"_Okay, I'm on it. I've uploaded the OverBike, the OverBoard, and the OverWing!"_

"Good enough vehicles for the five of us," Cassidy smiled.

Aelita went with Ulrich, Cassidy went with Odd—though the female cat warrior was nervous (_And I should be, _she thought; _he nearly killed Aelita once with this thing_)—and Yumi went by herself.

"Oh, relax, Cat-Girl, I won't go bashing into the data screens," Odd told his charge.

"I'll try." Cassidy squeezed her eyes shut and thought of positive thoughts.

And they were off.

The Mantas followed.

**-To the lab-**

Jeremie was typing on the data he received from Aelita and was working on opening the tunnel.

"Okay, the passage is open," he said.

**-Sector 5-**

"Okay, Jeremie," Cassidy still had her eyes shut.

"Jeremie, we have a problem," Ulrich saw the Mantas. "We just found the flying Mantas."

Cassidy carefully shot at one, blind.

"That's Yvonne?" She heard one explode.

"Priscilla, actually," Odd corrected.

"Where's Shirley?"

"Beside Yvonne."

"And Yvonne is…?"

"In front of Shirley."

She shot Yvonne, and it exploded.

"_You should be able to lose it,"_ Jeremie sounded.

Shirley dropped its mines.

"Let's not make tracks," Cassidy shouted to the team.

Everyone nodded and beat it out of there.

**-Lab-**

Jeremie was relieved.

**-A few minutes later-**

"Well, these are codes for XANA's subsystems," Jeremie went over the stuff. "I cracked them three weeks ago!"

He turned his attention to the screen. "Hey, yeah, this one looks like the source code to a virus!" He sounded overjoyed.

"Antivirus/breaker possible?" Cassidy purled two stitches to Ulrich's scarf.

"I might be able to use it!" he ignored Cassidy's fragmented question.

"I'll take that as a yes then," Cassidy knitted two stitches.

Jeremie turned to Aelita. "If the virus/link inside you is anything like this one, I might be able to free you from XANA."

Aelita turned overjoyed too. "You mean, like soon?"

Jeremie smiled at his sweetheart. "Yeah!"

"Okay, we're out of here. There's a big climbing competition tonight!" Odd pulled on Ulrich's arm.

"Odd, Ulrich's not a huge fan of climbing." Cassidy put on the rubber protectors on her project. "So will you stop pulling his arm?"

Odd nodded and dropped his buddy's arm. "We got to practice."

"And I already told you I'm not doing it," Ulrich put his arms akimbo.

"Really? Why not?" Yumi came in.

Cassidy was about to jump in and save Ulrich, when something held her back. (_If you do anything to save Ulrich, he won't sulk, _a voice told her.)

Ulrich almost melted. "Because…"

"At least come and watch me," Odd begged then gave his smile.

"Come on, Ulrich. For once, Odd's found a sport where being scrawny is a plus!" Yumi giggled a bit.

"Hey, I am not scrawny," Odd began.

"He's svelte; it's French for slender," Cassidy finished. "And since I know everything about everybody, Odd's really sensitive about his high metabolism."

Aelita giggled a little.

**-Gym Class-**

"Come on, keep it steady," Jim ordered while Odd took the climb like a pro.

He and Hervé were going at it and the latter was getting tired.

"You should have left your zits down there, huh, Hervé; they're too heavy," Odd kept climbing like the rock climb was no big deal.

Hervé got distracted. "Della Robbia, I'm going to…" he fell, causing a certain brown-haired girl to laugh.

Cassidy looked at Odd go. _He'll win, big time. I know he will. He's tough and tuff._

Odd made it to the top, much to Hervé's embarrassment.

"I'M THE KING OF THE WORLD!" Odd shouted.

Soon it was Cassidy and Magali's turn on the wall. Cassidy tried not to let her given fear of heights show. She wasn't going to show to the others that she was weak too. She thought of positives, and tied with Magali.

"Rematch, McGuire and De Vasseur," Jim called out.

_How do people expect me to win if I keep tying with other students?_ Cassidy wondered.

Cassidy and Magali jumped down and tried over, Magali a little tired. Cassidy unexpectedly won.

Then it was time for Jim to call out the next competitors. "Okay, Stern, the wall!"

The female cat warrior's stomach squirmed. _Jim should know that Ulrich has vertigo, but he shouldn't know that Ulrich is a little shaky on the OverBoard. He will _not _know about Lyoko._

"Um…you see Jim," Ulrich got nervous.

"Eh?" Jim asked.

Ulrich stopped himself. He couldn't say he had vertigo to his coach.

William got in front of him. "First one to the top?"

Cassidy wanted to intervene. (_"Don't do it! It's not the right time,_ a raspy voice told her.)

Ulrich gave William a cold and nervous stare—more cold than nervous. "Sorry, I don't climb."

"Are you scared," Cassidy's boyfriend asked in a teasing fashion.

Ulrich looked behind William to Cassidy—she could tell he was pleading, but he didn't show it. His eyes were the traitors. "Just say yes," she mouthed. "Lesser punishments can occur."

He seemed to nod—his head didn't move but the look in his eyes told the story quite well.

"Hmm…?" Yumi's eyebrows shifted a little.

"No, I'm not scared," Ulrich said.

"Come on, Stern," Jim ordered. "Show us what you've got. Get up that wall, hurry up!"

"Ay, ay, ay," Cassidy smacked her forehead. To herself she muttered, "Why can't I intervene?"

Ulrich looked to Yumi in a way that said "You owe me big time!"

Yumi was confused.

Cassidy came in next. She whispered to him when he was within earshot, "Just focus on your hand grips, and don't look down."

Ulrich knew that Cassidy knew of his vertigo, but she was a little wise to keep it well hidden.

Odd came in last, but not least. "Hey, man, humiliate this guy and let's go eat."

Ulrich looked up at the wall, and was a little disoriented.

**-Lab-**

Jeremie looked to Aelita. "Ready, Aelita."

She nodded, feeling excited.

He pressed the enter key. It showed a small figure of Aelita, and it showed a few moments later that that test…

"Yes, the test worked! It's _unbelievable!_" Jeremie got out of the chair and danced a small box step with his sweetheart a little.

Aelita was happy too. "We did it! We found the breaker/antivirus!"

They stopped their box stepping. "Jeremie, what if—what if you injected me right now? We could surprise the others." She was excited.

"But isn't that a little risky?" Jeremie asked, concerned.

"It'll be just as risky in two hours, or two days."

"Okay, go to the scanner. I'll start the process!" He nodded.

**-Ulrich you better not be climbing up that wall-**

He was. **(A/N: Where the transition author is yelling a long and needed "NO!")**

William was ahead.

Odd, Cassidy, and Yumi watched. Odd was champing at the bit. "What is he doing?" then he yelled, "HEY, COME ON, ULRICH! MOVE IT!"

Cassidy turned to Odd. "He's not being chased down by wolves, boofhead."

Odd turned to Cassidy. "And what makes you say that, Danger Psychic?"

"He has VERTIGO!" Cassidy practically screamed. Then she whispered, "And that's why he's slow in climbing. Now yell some positive words, or I'll devirtualize you first chance I get on Lyoko forever and always, Ninja-Boy!"

Ulrich looked down and stopped. He was shaking.

"DON'T LOOK DOWN, ULRICH! FOCUS ON THE HAND GRIPS!" Cassidy yelled, fearing the worst.

"You can beat him. Go for it, Ulrich!" Yumi shouted.

Ulrich tried. Her boyfriend looked down at the samurai warrior. "Come on, huh, Spider-Man. Are you spinning a web or did you fall asleep?"

"I thought you're afraid of spiders, WILLIAM!" Cassidy practically threw a hammer plus a washing machine at her boyfriend.

William looked down at his girl. "Huh?"

Ulrich focused on his hand grips and soon reached the top.

"YOU DID IT, ULRICH. GOOD ON YOU, WORLD CHAMPION!" Odd whooped for joy.

"Which world?" Cassidy asked lightly.

"Both of them, Cassidy. Both of them," Odd smiled.

William was not happy. "Don't ever repeat what you just said to me ever again!" he was angry at her even after his feet reached ground.

Cassidy was about to up and defend herself when Yumi stepped in her way. "Hey, lay off, William. She had a right to taunt you. But you had no right taunting Ulrich!"

William gave the two girls the cold shoulder and left.

"Thank you, Yumi!" Cassidy whispered to her.

"Hey, friends stick up for friends. Especially friends that save the other's life over a million times," Yumi smiled.

Cassidy blushed. "It was nothing, those saving-Yumi instances. Just my power kicking into overdrive."

**-To the Scanner Room-**

The doors to Aelita's scanner closed. Jeremie's voice echoed in the scanner room. _"Ready?"_

Aelita had a determined look on her face. "Yes! Do it."

**-Lab-**

Jeremie pressed the enter key and the antivirus/breaker program began.

About a minute into the program, he noticed something wrong. He ran down to the scanner room and pried open Aelita's scanner. As soon as he got it open, Aelita fell into his arms. "Aelita, how do you feel? Say something."

"Something," Aelita joked.

Jeremie laughed. "If you can make jokes as bad as Odd, then you must be okay."

**-Ulrich, Yumi, Cassidy, and Odd-**

They went up to Odd and Ulrich's room after lunch. "Thanks for making that distraction." Ulrich ruffled Cassidy's hair.

"It's the least I can do," Cassidy said.

"Hey! We've got great news!" Aelita and Jeremie ran up the dormitory hallway.

"You did it." Cassidy smiled. "You've found the antivirus/breaker. And you've also injected Aelita with it, did you not, Jeremie?"

"That's so great!" Yumi was also smiling.

Ulrich ran off to the forest to collect his thoughts.

"All we got to do now is shut down the supercomputer and it's _adios_ to XANA," Aelita said.

Cassidy turned around, and Ulrich was gone. "I think our friend Ulrich went to the forest to gather his thoughts."

"What do you mean?" Yumi asked.

"Turn around," she deadpanned.

Yumi did.

**-Forest-**

Ulrich was walking around the forest to ease his mind a little. _Soon we'll be forever free of XANA? I can hardly believe it._

He then heard a noise—they sounded like growls. Spinning around, he found that it was Odd and Yumi.

"Feeling okay?" Odd asked.

"Yeah, just thinking about the possibility that soon we'll be free forever of XANA," Ulrich nodded.

Yumi put an arm around him. "It may be a little different but we'll be in our newest routines when it happens."

**-To Jeremie, Aelita, and Cassidy-**

"I don't believe it," Jeremie was typing on his Lyoko journal—which started with that day of October 9th. "I'm actually writing the final entry in the Lyoko Travel Log Book. Can you imagine?"

Aelita felt headachy all of a sudden. Cassidy noticed. "You feeling okay?" she asked.

She jumped. Jeremie turned around. "Do you think it's the breaker/antivirus?"

The two girls got to their feet, the pink-haired girl using the brown-haired girl as support. "No!" Aelita said. "It's just an energy slump. I'll go lie down in our room for a minute or two."

Cassidy then was hit with a twisted-gut feeling. _I've not had such a spell since the first failed shutdown of the supercomputer. Something must be wrong here._

The two walked until Aelita noticed her hands disappear. Cassidy noticed too. "We'll go to Jeremie."

Sissi came out of her room. "Oh, Aelita, Cassidy, I didn't even see you two standing there. But that's hardly surprising. You two are such wall flowers."

"Well, we won't be Elizabeth Proctor. We don't want your speech. And if you DARE to insult Jeremie, you're just out of luck. I do have my ways, and they play out well. Come on, Aelita, let's go to Jeremie!" Cassidy's words sounded just perfect to Aelita's ears.

Sissi returned to her room in shock. Cassidy knew she was about to insult Jeremie? Was she delusional?

Aelita was already visually invisible, but Cassidy could see her. The two made it to Jeremie's room.

Jeremie was already panicking over XANA's tower.

"Jeremie, this is awful!" Aelita cried.

"Something's gone wrong with the breaker/antivirus. Aelita's become visually invisible," Cassidy continued. "But I can see her through a seventh sense, somehow."

Cassidy's sixth sense was her psychic power. Her seventh sense was seeing invisible people and things. _If I were to see Sue Storm, she'd be careful around me._

"XANA is attacking!" Jeremie told them.

"We'll get to L Y o ka o as soon as we get to the factory," Cassidy spelled Lyoko out in Spanish, and then turned her brown eyes to Aelita. "It's okay; we'll get this sorted out."

Aelita nodded.

**-Forest-**

Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich were walking together when the second boy stopped. He heard some more noises.

Then the three saw a wolf. "Uh-oh, what's that? A nice little doggie I hope," Odd was shaking a little.

"No, a big bad wolf, Odd," Ulrich backed up some.

Several wolves came out of the trees, pupils glowing with the Eye of XANA and growling.

"Uh, when faced with a pack of wolves, what do we do?" Odd asked his friends, getting scared.

"We run!" Yumi yelled.

The three ran like the wind, and the wolves followed.

**-Sewers-**

Jeremie, Aelita, and Cassidy got to the factory. Jeremie tried calling Yumi, but there was a konichiwa from her voicemail saying to them to leave her a message.

"She's being chased by wolves, I see it!" Cassidy's eyes went to the lightest shade of brown. "Ulrich and Odd are in the running with her. We might have to launch a return trip after this attack gets finished. It wouldn't be a bad idea." Her eyes went back to normal brown.

Jeremie nodded. "Meet us at the factory, there is a bug and a XANA attack."

He clicked off his mobile.

"The pack of wolves is the XANA attack. I can feel it, like I can feel my heartbeat," Cassidy had a determined-almost-angry look on her face. "It's payback time," she snarled in a whisper. She never got off the fact that XANA tried to drain her confidence, once. Vengeance was set in her eyes. She was going to make XANA pay.

They stopped their modes of transportation.

**-With Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich-**

The wolves were still chasing them. They ran until they got to a small cliff. Ulrich groaned, "Oh, no!" and stopped.

"Let's go!" Odd and Yumi ran up ahead.

Ulrich followed the two.

Yumi climbed up first, then Odd, then lastly Ulrich.

_Take this handgrip by handgrip. And DON'T under ANY circumstances look down,_ Cassidy's words buzzed in Ulrich's head.

Ulrich followed the words more easily than not.

He kept climbing, until a wolf bit his heel.

Yumi panicked. "ULRICH!"

Ulrich kicked the wolf and kept climbing, but then, he looked down and got dizzy.

"Follow Cassidy's words! Don't look down," Odd yelled.

His vision started to blur and shift.

"Concentrate on your hand grips, and don't think of anything else," Odd shouted.

Ulrich started to climb up faster and faster with each hand grip, and Odd yelling encouragement, until he reached Yumi's hand.

"Just a little further," Yumi said, reaching out with one of her hands.

Ulrich almost fell off, but she caught him just in the nick of time. "I gotcha!"

With Odd and Yumi's help, they pulled Ulrich to the top of the cliff.

**-Scanner room-**

"We're in, Jeremie," Cassidy called out.

The scanner doors closed and Cassidy got to Lyoko.

Aelita was then scanned. _"It isn't XANA, it's a bug in the breaker/antivirus,"_ Jeremie's voice sounded almost despondent. _"I have to deactivate it. But it's going to take a little while."_

**-Lab-**

"_Plus the 'breaker/antivirus' inhibits Aelita from deactivating the tower,"_ Cassidy's voice sounded from the Ice Sector.

"I sometimes hate your power," Jeremie groaned, the message from his friend making him feel worse.

"_I sometimes hate it too. It dunked me in the pool, and stranded me under a tree trunk,"_ Cassidy groaned. _"Welcome to the club; we've got jackets. Transfer Aelita over to me so I can protect her from the Schyphozoa, and when you get the darned thing deactivated, so she can deactivate the tower."_

Jeremie nodded and soon, Aelita was on Lyoko next to Cassidy.

Yumi came up. _"We've got a big problem, Jeremie."_

**-Up on the Cliff top-**

"We're in the forest with a pack of wolves possessed by XANA," Yumi continued.

"_Cassidy told me,"_ Jeremie said.

**-Lab-**

"Aelita and Cassidy are on Lyoko right now!" Jeremie informed Yumi and the others. "Cassidy will protect her while I get the antivirus/breaker deactivated."

"_I'll keep you posted," _Yumi said.

**-Cliff top-**

"Your foot okay?" Yumi turned to Ulrich.

He turned to her and nodded.

"Good thing you weren't wearing sandals," Odd noted.

A wolf growled from behind them. "Ah, great!" Odd muttered. "A flying wolf."

The three back up to the edge of the cliff.

**-Lyoko-**

Aelita and Cassidy were at the activated tower, waiting for Jeremie to deactivate the breaker/antivirus.

"Well, it's good to be visible again," Aelita said.

"Yep, and hopefully, I don't get an eighth sense, then things will really be messed up," she nodded. "Odd and Yumi will get here soon, I can feel it."

**-Forest-**

The wolf came closer with every step it took, determined to kill. Ulrich wanted to use Pencak Silat to get rid of it.

"This is when the kind hunters usually come to the rescue, right," Odd asked the two, assuming a fighting stance.

The wolf ascended to Ulrich, making him flinch and fall off the cliff. Luckily there were some hanging trees that reduced the risk of injury for him.

He fell on a wolf, but, hang on, it dissolved into nothingness. Ulrich got up.

Odd at the top was stupefied. "But…"

Ulrich at the bottom was too. "Huh?" then he hit one. It went away too. "It's a decoy. They—they're just images."

Odd kicked the wolf in the foreleg and instantly, the wolf disappeared. "That XANA's even slier than I thought." He put his arms akimbo.

**-Lyoko-**

"No Schyphozoa in sight, Jeremie," Aelita informed Jeremie.

"_Anyway, be careful!"_ Jeremie told the two.

Cassidy nodded.

**-Forest-**

Once safely down and four wolves to go. The next wolf was about to attack Yumi but she roundhouse kicked her wolf and it disappeared.

Ulrich tried his luck with the leader, but… "Uh oh, this one's real!"

"So are these two." Yumi and Odd backed up with Ulrich.

Her phone rang. She picked it up. "Jeremie," she said.

"_How's it going?"_ Jeremie asked.

"It sure is no picnic over here," Yumi answered.

"_Aelita and Cassidy are at the tower but they are waiting for me to deactivate the antivirus/breaker," _Jeremie gave his news.

"Why aren't you…?"

"_Cassidy told me that the darned thing inhibits Aelita from deactivating the tower, so they're waiting in the Ice Sector,"_ Jeremie said.

Yumi hung up her phone.

**-Lyoko-**

Aelita and Cassidy were having a little staring contest on Lyoko. Eye irritation was not possible on the virtual world unless a sandstorm was on its way. But the two were in the Ice Sector, so a sandstorm was impossible, too.

Cassidy laid out her senses with her eyes open. _Okay, the Schyphozoa will be on its way, but I can handle it. I'm not Kim Possible but I can do it. A couple of Hornets to worry about, but Odd can handle them since he is on his way. A Megatank might take out Yumi, but I'll try to stop it._

"How're you doing, ladies?" Jeremie asked.

Without looking up, Aelita said, "We're doing alright, Jeremie. We're having a little staring contest."

"Yeah, and I know the monsters of this mission," Cassidy was not letting up. She was holding strong.

"Yeah, list them," Jeremie and Aelita said together, the latter not blinking.

"The Schyphozoa, but I can handle it, a couple of Hornets, and a Megatank. The Megatank will get destroyed by Odd though, since he is coming," Cassidy didn't even blink.

"And Yumi?" Aelita cocked her head to one side, but kept her eyes open.

"She's coming too," Cassidy nodded, eyes open.

"What about Ulrich," Aelita blinked.

"He'll be up against the pack of wolves. And also, you blinked," Cassidy blinked too.

"Darn it," Aelita shook her fist a little.

**-Forest-**

"Aelita and Cassidy need our help," Yumi turned to Odd and Ulrich.

"Glad to hear it, but how do you figure getting out of this jam," Odd asked her.

Ulrich had an idea—his eyes didn't brighten, but he did have his straight face on. "We split up. I'll take care of them."

"Are you crazy?" she asked him.

"Go on, I said, okay? I may have vertigo, but I can handle a few flea-bitten mongrels," he picked up a stick. "On three, get going."

"You mean one-two and go, or do you mean one-two-three and go?" Odd asked him.

"GO!" Ulrich told them.

Odd and Yumi ran while Ulrich stayed behind to try and defeat the wolves.

**-Lyoko-**

The Schyphozoa glided across the water. Cassidy rolled her eyes. _Is XANA stupid or what? Usually it's like a chess game. Take out the defenders then go for the queen—note not the king for he is in the console chair. Lucky him. And I'm one of the _defenders.

She shot her gun at it and the jellyfish-monster left. "Do you think I'm stupid, XANA? I know all your tricks, like I know Sissi's tricks. Don't you ever use your artificial intelligence?"

"Apparently not." Aelita shook her head.

**-Forest with Ulrich-**

Ulrich broke his stick trying to club one of the wolves in the head.

**-Scanner room-**

"You can start the process, Jeremie," Yumi and Odd got into the scanners.

Soon they were on Lyoko.

**-To where Aelita and Cassidy are-**

They were having another staring contest.

Two Hornets came on the scene, just as Cassidy predicted.

Cassidy raised her gun, but Aelita lowered her friend's arm. "Let Odd get it," she whispered.

Cassidy nodded, not even blinking.

**-With Jeremie-**

Jeremie was uploading the vehicles. "You know what to do. The vehicles are on their way!"

**-To Yumi and Odd-**

The OverWing and OverBoard were there in an instant. Odd jumped on his board, while Yumi got on her OverWing.

**-Jeremie-**

"_How's Ulrich?_" Yumi asked as the two were on the trail.

"No news," Jeremie sounded grim.

**-Ulrich-**

Ulrich was running on the Red Path trying to evade the wolves, but they trailed him.

He ran across the street, and the wolves were slowed a little by a passing bus.

**-Lyoko-**

The hornets threatened to get closer. Cassidy tried with her willpower to not raise her gun.

Aelita and Cassidy were at it like pros.

**-Odd and Yumi-**

They saw a Megatank. They fought but Yumi got devirtualized, and Odd lost his OverBoard by ramming it into the Megatank's eye.

Odd took over on foot and ran to where the ladies were. He saw the Hornets and Cassidy and Aelita having a staring contest.

He shot one of the hornets, keeping hidden. The last hornet "looked" around and found him. He shot at the last one.

Cassidy blinked and saw Odd. "Good job Odd."

"I win," Aelita sang a little.

"Yeah, I know. The bugged up thing is removed now. Try deactivating the tower now," Cassidy smiled.

Aelita went over and deactivated the tower.

**-Back on Earth-**

Ulrich was almost ran down by the wolves, but they—the wolves—fainted.

**-Return to the Past, NOW!-**

"First one to the top?" William asked.

"William, honey, um…Ulrich has vertigo," Cassidy walked up to William. "I have kinda foreseen what may happen if Ulrich climbs."

He understood and left Ulrich alone.

They met up with Aelita and walked over to the exit. "So, Aelita, what's it like being invisible. I've always wanted to be like, you know Sue from the Fantastic Four!"

Everyone got a good laugh out of this.


	26. Basically, Is Anybody Out There?

**Time for a question: IS ANYBODY OUT THERE?**

**Yes.**

**I don't own Code Lyoko. The only things I do own are the plot, my OC, and my dog in real life.**

"A horrible tragedy may explain the rumor that there's a ghost somewhere at the Kadic Academy. Back in 1905, while the building was under construction, one of the workers, Leon Corbet, is said to have been buried alive under the foundations, in the boiler room area to be precise," Sissi read to Nicholas and Hervé. The two boys were kinda shocked.

Nicholas spoke first, to Hervé. "Ha, now do you believe me?" He was filled with pride.

The boys had an argument over if Kadic was haunted. Hervé, on one hand, was more logical. He didn't believe that their beloved school (equipped with the Principal's Daughter) was haunted. On the other hand, Nicholas was more adamant. He believed in the ghost or ghosts.

Sissi was able to help them end the argument, but it seemed to go on forever.

"Get real!" Hervé looked to his friend.

The bell rang.

**-In Class-**

"Emily, 77—good work," Mrs. Mayer said passing out papers. "Cassidy, 100—excellent. Jean, 87—very good. Elizabeth, a quadrilateral is not a quadrant you do later—10!"

A note landed on Cassidy's table as she looked at her results. "Huh?" she whispered to herself.

She put her paper down and picked up the note. She read it in her head. It was an invitation—from _Sissi_—to go to the boiler room at around midnight. _Ulrich will get a message, too. I know it._

"Jeremie, 100—excellent," Mrs. Mayer handed his paper over.

Jeremie grabbed it after it was handed.

"Ulrich, you earned an 87—good work," Mrs. Mayer smiled.

Ulrich picked up his paper and a note fell from it. He picked it up, "'Meet me at the boiler room at midnight, Sissi?'" He turned to the aforementioned person at the same time as Cassidy. He looked to her as well. "Same thing," he mouthed.

Cassidy nodded. "Bad luck for the both of us," she mouthed back.

Ulrich turned his attention back to Sissi who only gave the two a smile.

He then returned to her. "Why did you get one?" he mouthed.

"I think she thinks I'm supposed to be one of those paranormal investigators, but I don't communicate with the dead. That's witchcraft in the Crucible. It was a hanging error in Salem, Massachusetts, Ulrich. A hanging error," she whispered.

He nodded.

**-MONSTER JIM RALLY (A/N: Oh joy)-**

"May I remind you that, in the evening, girls and boys are prohibited from straying from their respective floors. **(A/N: I ask you readers out there, isn't it strange when this is going on, every boy is in their night clothes in the **_**daytime?**_** End A/N)** Okay, for any of you who might be thinking of trying to pull anything, remember that the floors are different from each other and that they are either upstairs from or downstairs from the one above. **(A/N: Confusion much?)** Girls are upstairs and boys—downstairs. Comings and goings from upstairs to downstairs and from downstairs to upstairs are strictly forbidden!"

Odd yawned, earning a yell-off from Jim. "If I catch anyone going _from_ downstairs/upstairs or anyone going from upstairs/downstairs, he or she is going to regret it stairs."

The reason for the reinforced rule was that a boy and a girl **(A/N: Not from the group or from William either. End A/N)** got a little frisky. The boy invited the girl to his room and, when Jim went patrolling, he heard some overly-pleasant moans and groans. The couple got caught and now was serving some counseling time with Mr. Klotz.

When the rules were repeated to the girls, Cassidy yawned too, earning herself a yell-off, too.

Jim walked off. "You've been warned! Dismissed!"

**-Later that night-**

Ulrich and Cassidy set off at twenty-three thirty (or eleven-thirty) to the boiler room. She knew what would happen, and hoped for the best and not the worst.

They met up with the door. Ulrich knocked on it.

A high-pitched voice greeted them. "Password?"

"Let me guess. Ulrich Sweetheart?" Cassidy guessed.

"Correct!" Sissi let the two in and lead them through the dark hallway until they saw the Pentagram—circle with a star in the middle and candles all around the round edge.

"Isn't this a bit square for you?" Ulrich asked a hint dull.

"It's not a square; it's a Tampa-gram," Sissi told the two.

"Pentagram," Hervé, who was sitting cross-legged with Nicholas, said.

"And why did you drag me into this, Sissi?" Cassidy yawned. "I was just in the middle of a terrific dream, full of action."

"Because, the spirit will probably know you're a necromancer," Sissi stated.

"I have to tell you that—"

Sissi interrupted her. "Whatever!"

The three stepped into the Pentagram.

"Thanks to this and my psychic powers," Sissi continued.

"Don't you mean _my_ psychic powers," Cassidy muttered.

"Shut up, McGuire," Sissi commanded. "I'm going to conjure up the spirit of that poor Leon Corbet."

Cassidy scoffed. "Go figure. Your cronies will act as cowards for this."

Ulrich nudged her in the ribs.

"I'm sure if we communicate with him, he can finally rest in peace," the raven-haired girl raised her hands to the sky.

"I have no idea if he is even earthbound, Sissi," Cassidy said. "I'm not—"

"I can't wait to see this," Ulrich chuckled a little.

"Okay, now stand inside the pentagon with me," Sissi told the two. "We will bring together our ping and pong energy…"

"I think it's Yin and Yang," the brown-haired girl quirked.

"…and summon up the dead man's ghost," she continued.

"You know what? I think you forgot the paddles," he joked.

"And the net," Cassidy continued.

Sissi grabbed the two of them as they were laughing—they stopped then—and told them to hold hands.

Cassidy held Ulrich's hand and he held Sissi's hand. She—Cassidy—held Sissi's other hand.

"And now let the ceremony begin!" Sissi announced.

Nicholas and Hervé started chanting.

Sissi let go and put her hands together as if in prayer.

The chanting was enough to put Cassidy in a trance. She went white-eyed, which Ulrich took notice. Too long under her power and she could wreck the school by now by accident.

Hoping Sissi, Hervé, and Nicholas weren't watching, he Gibbs-slapped her. Cassidy broke out of it.

The chanting went on.

"I summon you, Leon Corbet," Sissi said.

**XANA decided to play**. He went into the stove and closed the door.

The boys chanting stopped.

Cassidy shook a little. That was the first time in a while that her eyes turned white. It had been about a month since that happened.

"Yes, Leon, I'm listening," Sissi had a kinda good feeling about this. Hervé and Nicholas stood up.

The stove door opened and a specter came out onto the floor. It wasn't a polymorphing specter. Cassidy knew that much.

Just as Cassidy predicted, the two cronies of Sissi ran screaming. Only Ulrich, Cassidy, and Sissi remained.

"Don't step out of the Tampa-long, Ulrich and Cassidy. It protects us," Sissi told them in a whisper. "Uh…Leon Corbet?"

The specter leaped to the three then disappeared. Sissi was disappointed. "Darn it—" then she realized. "Cassidy?"

"I'm trying to tell you, Sissi, I'm not a—"

"Behind you, oh!" She pointed.

Ulrich and Cassidy looked behind them.

The specter was about to attack the two Lyoko Warriors, but they dodged. Sissi screamed, but Ulrich pulled her out of the way. "Let's go, _quick!"_ Ulrich commanded.

Cassidy followed, too. "And you should know that—"

"Later," her friend yelled.

She groaned. "Why is it always the psychic ones that get interrupted in this chapter?"

They exited the boiler room and Ulrich and Cassidy banded together to push the lockers that never seem to get used anymore to barricade the door.

They then grabbed Sissi and ran.

**-With Nicholas and Hervé—this ought to be good :) –**

The two were talking over each other in panic to Jim. He—the gym teacher—slowed them down.

Hervé said, "The ghost of Leon Corbet came after us in the boiler room, Jim!"

Jim didn't believe it for even a half-second. "If anyone's after you two, it's a gym teacher in a tracksuit holding a red pen which he's going to use to give you four hours of detention."

Ulrich and Cassidy were watching from a window in the double-doors. "We better go upstairs, fast!" Ulrich whispered to the two girls.

**-With the specter-**

The specter ghosted through the seemingly-unused lockers with ease.

**-With Ulrich, Sissi, and Cassidy-**

Ulrich got to his room, Cassidy and Sissi following, and opened the door. He looked to Sissi. "Sissi, you better get back to your room."

She wouldn't go. "No!" she half-croaked. "Don't leave me all by myself, please."

"Well, since you said por favor," Cassidy winked, but on her face was a frown.

He hushed her and said, "Alright, come in then."

She (Sissi) was pleased and relieved at the same time. Tiptoeing into Odd and Ulrich's dorm, she heard Ulrich say, "Wait for us here, we'll be back."

Cassidy took Ulrich's lead and went with him to Jeremie's room.

**-With Odd-**

Odd woke up and saw Sissi. "Am I dreaming or what?" he asked, sitting up.

"I'm scared, Odd. 'Mind if I sit near you?" Sissi asked him.

"Uh-huh. It's just a nightmare and soon I'm gonna wakeup." He leaned back on his pillow in an attempt that said "I'm not seeing this, am I".

**-Cassidy and Ulrich in Jeremie's room-**

Ulrich woke Jeremie up. "Jeremie, I think XANA's just launched an attack."

"I can feel the tower from Earth, too, Ulrich, it's somewhere on Lyoko, but—" she tried so hard for the location. "—Darn it! My powers are jammed. Nice going, XANA. You are going to pay for this with your own demise, one of these days."

"Huh? XANA's going to die?" Ulrich turned to Cassidy.

Cassidy nodded. "I can't give you an exact date yet, but he'll die somewhere next school year."

"The laptop," Jeremie requested, putting on his glasses.

Ulrich retrieved the laptop for his friend.

Jeremie typed on the super-scan. "We'll know in a minute."

The super-scan showed nothing. "Nope, there are no activated towers."

"But, I know you think I'm probably crazy, but I can feel the tower. It's somewhere, but I just don't know where," Cassidy sighed in dejection.

"Hey, you did your best this time. Maybe your powers are overused," Ulrich suggested.

The block suddenly dissipated from Cassidy's mind. "ICE SECTOR!" she yelped. "It's in the Ice Sector."

**-Time to check on Jim-**

He was walking the halls while the specter stalked him. Paranoia set in and Jim whirled around. But there was nothing there, so he turned around and walked the halls again. The specter was following his every move. Jim was getting annoyed now. "Somebody around here is going to be in real trouble." He turned around again.

Again nothing, but then the specter, invisible, lifted the hapless PE teacher by the ankle and he started screaming.

**-Time to check on Odd and Sissi-**

"So, Leon's ghost came out of the boiler, and—and he was so _ugly_ that even Nicholas and Hervé started screaming, like Cassidy predicted," Sissi confided in Odd, who was listening to her every word.

They heard Jim screaming and went to investigate.

So did Cassidy, Ulrich, and Jeremie. Jim was hanging in the air sounding strangled.

Sissi started screaming at the highest scream she could go. Odd flinched and closed his eyes.

That dropped Jim.

The Lyoko Warriors went over to check on Jim. Sissi ran off (_It's okay, _Cassidy thought tiredly, _she'll find a broom closet to hide in; I don't mind it.)._

"You okay, Jim?" Odd asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm alright," Jim panted.

Then Ulrich heard something. "What's that noise?" He asked Cassidy.

"The so-called 'ghost of Leon Corbet'," she nodded.

"It's getting closer," Odd said.

"I know, but I'm not a necromancer—YES, I said it," she was happy not to get interrupted that time.

Then Odd got pulled by the ankle and was dragged. Ulrich grabbed Odd's hand and tried to break XANA's invisible ghost's grip, but was dragged too. Odd was screaming.

Jeremie knew just what to do. He grabbed the fire extinguisher and—though not at a distance—sprayed XANA's invisible ghost. It let go of Odd fast and disappeared.

"Thank you George Manby," Cassidy whispered under her breath.

"Who?" Ulrich turned to her.

"The inventor of the fire extinguisher," Cassidy smiled.

"You saw right; the monster depixelized when I hit it," Jeremie said.

"It's one of XANA's attacks," she nodded. "Oh, we'll not be able to sleep this night. XANA bugged the super-scan."

"Let's get Aelita!" Jeremie lead the two boys and the only girl up to Cassidy and Aelita's room.

**-In the Broom Closet-**

Sissi was shaking and scared. XANA's ghost came in through the door and made her scream. It went away and Sissi fainted.

**-Yumi's house-**

Yumi was reading in her room when she heard her phone ring. She picked it up. "Hello!"

**-Ulrich, Odd, Jeremie, and Cassidy-**

"It's me," Ulrich said. "There's a big emergency. Meet us at the factory."

"_Got it!"_ Yumi half-yawned.

Jeremie and Cassidy entered the room.

**-The ghost is coming-**

Aelita woke up. "Jeremie? Cassidy?" She was a little confused to see Cassidy in her day clothes.

"Aelita," Jeremie said.

**-Meanwhile-**

The ghost checked the empty room that was supposed to be Cassidy's, but she was adamant about the roommate part, so it stayed an empty room.

The ghost jumped up into Aelita and Cassidy's room.

**-What happens now?-**

Cassidy and Jeremie were in the crosshairs of doom and they were both attacked. Aelita watched in horror. Ulrich and Odd saw this, too. Ulrich turned off the light and saw the specter holding its victims down. He grabbed Aelita's ruler, ran up, and stabbed it.

It released them and Cassidy and Jeremie sat up to catch their breaths. Cassidy drew a shuddering breath and looked to her savior. "Thanks, U-Ulrich."

"Don't mention it," Ulrich smiled and deadpanned at the same time.

Cassidy smiled, remembering the day of October 10th where he had said the same thing.

"This is no time to hang around," Ulrich pulled Jeremie to his feet.

Cassidy was helped by Aelita. The former then had an equilibrium attack and fell to her knees. Aelita pulled her friend to her feet again.

"Do these attacks always happen when you stand up?" Odd asked her as soon as they were running to the factory.

"Sometimes," Cassidy panted.

**-The specter is not happy; next scene-**

The three boys and the two girls ran to the sewer cap. They went in one at a time, Odd and Ulrich going last. Ulrich said, "Hurry, it's coming," and covered the sewers.

**-Lab-**

Yumi was there already. The elevator doors opened to reveal the rest of the team. "What took you so long?"

"We had a slight delay, Yumi," Cassidy blinked. "Jeremie and I got attacked by the so-called apparition of 'Leon Corbet'. XANA also bugged up the super-scan."

"Do you believe in ghosts," Ulrich asked Yumi.

"No," Yumi said.

"Wrong answer," he told her.

Jeremie got in the cushy chair and started typing almost endlessly until he noticed something. "Hey, that's weird. XANA's managed to corrupt the super-scan."

"We better hit to Sector 5, ladies," Cassidy nodded.

"You take the lead this time," Ulrich smiled at the female psychic.

"Okay, Ulrich, you defend Jeremie against that ghost. Odd you guard the Ice Sector tower to the best of your abilities. Yumi and Aelita, we will go to Sector 5 to uncorrupt the super-scan," Cassidy gave the orders well as if Ulrich possessed her.

Soon Odd, Yumi, Aelita, and Cassidy were on Lyoko's Desert Sector.

Yumi looked to Odd. "Nice to see you without your pajamas on."

Odd posed as if tying a Windsor knot. "Nice of you to notice." He then looked around for any vehicles, but there were none. "Jeremie, I'm going to need a—" as if Jeremie read his mind, Odd's OverBoard came up in front of him. "Okay, forget it!"

Cassidy was given the OverBike. And the other two ladies were given the OverWing.

Odd jumped on his vehicle and went to the Ice Sector.

Aelita and Yumi got on the OverWing while Cassidy got on the OverBike and they went to the edge of the sector.

Odd looked behind him to call to the three ladies. "'Later!"

"¡Hasta luego, Odd!" Cassidy yelled back in Spanish.

As soon as Odd was out of sight, Aelita asked, "What's hasta luego mean?"

"See you later, I told Odd," Cassidy smiled.

Aelita and Yumi nodded. Soon the three stopped at the edge of the sector and Jeremie entered the code SCIPIO. The transporter took them to Sector 5.

The transporter landed the three to the Arena.

"We'll stop the countdown when we can, Jeremie, but first the wall has got to open!" Cassidy said.

As soon as the walls opened, the three girls ran to the Core Zone.

**-The lab-**

The two heard something. Ulrich got worried. "Jeremie!"

The ghost came.

Jeremie got worried. "What do we do?"

"Come on!" Ulrich told him.

And the two started their on the run track.

**-Odd-**

Odd was on his way to the Ice Sector from the Desert Sector.

**-Jeremie and Ulrich-**

They were running from the ghost from the boiler room. Jeremie looked back. "We can't shake him! There's no point in running; he'll catch us every time."

"You got a better idea?" Ulrich asked him.

**-Yumi, Aelita, and Cassidy-**

They were running to the Core Zone through the long corridor. They stopped in that room.

Yumi and Cassidy looked around for any traps. Aelita found the key. "I see the key." She pointed in the direction of it.

"No sweat!" Cassidy said, pointing her gun-turned-tube at it. She shot once and the bullet found its target. The countdown stopped.

"Wow," Yumi exclaimed.

"This time I didn't use a scope," Cassidy nodded. "Now let's get that super-scan debugged and we can get to the Ice Sector to deactivate that tower."

The two girls nodded.

**-Odd-**

Odd went to the Ice Sector.

**-Cassidy, Aelita, and Yumi-**

The two got to the elevator room and jumped at the right moment.

**-Ulrich and Jeremie-**

They had a plan.

The ghost went into the computer monitoring center. It got to Jeremie and was about to attack when Ulrich came in with spark plugs and shocked the beast.

**-Odd-**

He found a Tarantula walking on the ground below him. "Where there's smoke…" he muttered to himself.

**-Aelita, Cassidy, and Yumi-**

They were already in the Celestial Dome. Aelita started the process while Cassidy turned her tube into a little help center.

**-Odd-**

He followed the Tarantula to the activated tower and found a second Tarantula there too.

He fought hard.

**-The three girls-**

They debugged the program and Cassidy helped upload two vehicles: The OverWing, and the OverBike.

They were ready in an instant, and Cassidy opened up the portal to the Ice Sector.

They joined Odd. "Hey, ladies!"

"Glad to see you, Odd!" Cassidy smiled.

The three guardians worked on the Tarantulas and soon Aelita was able to reach the tower. She entered the Lyoko Code.

Jeremie's voice came back on. _"How did you do?"_

"We got the super-scan back online and Aelita just deactivated the tower," Cassidy said. "Can we all go home now?"

She swore that she heard Jeremie nod. And soon she saw Earth again.

Then Jeremie activated the return trip.

**-Back to the séance-**

The boys chanted, but Cassidy was able to not go into a trance.

"I summon you, Leon Corbet," Sissi said.

Odd's voice—though Sissi, Hervé and Nicholas couldn't detect the tone—sounded throughout the boiler. "Who dares call my name?"

"Well, I do," Sissi said, almost panic-stricken.

"Beat it, Ms. Delmas; you don't know who you're dealing with. SCRAM! And Ms. McGuire is not a speaker of the dead!" Odd did a mighty good job of scaring Sissi, Hervé, and Nicholas off.

After the three left, Cassidy smiled. "Odd, come on out! We done scared them half to death. And thank you for being my words, too."

Odd did. "No problem, Cat-Girl. It was the least I could do."

"And they'll think twice before talking to the dead too," Ulrich joked.

Cassidy and Odd nodded.


	27. Of Franz Hopper and Jeremie's Birthday

**These disclaimers: always annoying. Never giving the author entertainment.**

**Jeremie: But what is it doing here?**

**Me: it says that Code Lyoko isn't mine. Cassidy and the plot are. And some of the italics are Cassidy's hostile thoughts against XANA-Franz Hopper.**

Yumi was at her house when her phone rang. "Uh huh!"

"_Yumi, it's Jeremie. We need you to come to the factory right now."_

**-Jeremie's room-**

"The super-scan has just picked up an attack from XANA, and this one looks like big trouble," Jeremie was typing away.

"_Why?"_ Yumi yawned.

"Believe it or not, there are _five_ activated towers," Jeremie explained.

**-Factory-**

Jeremie was getting worried. "I've got a bad feeling about this one."

"Yeah, I do, too, Jeremie," Cassidy yawned a little.

"Oh, relax, Einstein and Danger Psychic," Odd said. "We'll take out the five towers in no time."

Aelita was smiling and Yumi arrived.

"I got here as quickly as I could," Yumi panted.

Ulrich gave her an approving look and they piled into the elevator to go to the lab.

When the six arrived there, someone was sitting in Jeremie's chair and it wasn't Odd.

"Ah, there you are." The chair swiveled around to face the six friends. "I'd been expecting you." It was Franz Hopper. He turned back around to face the computer. Cassidy felt instantaneously suspicious of the newcomer. _Something's not right. I can feel it._ Then she realized. _XANA. I've not any surprise on you, you confidence-draining, power-blocking, plot-planning, pig-stealing VIRUS!_

Jeremie noticed Cassidy's hostile gaze to the chair, so he pulled her inside the elevator, cocked a brow and asked, "Is something the matter?"

"Something is not right here, I can feel it," Cassidy said in a low voice. "It feels like betrayal and double-crossings. I'm not sure. But you mustn't trust almost everything this man says."

Jeremie gave her a short nod. Then the two went back to where they were.

"That XANA…locks the door, but leaves the window wide open," Franz Hopper was typing.

Jeremie was shocked. "But—" he was stammering. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm…deactivating the towers, of course," Franz replied.

Cassidy was still staring at the man with such hostility that if looks could kill, he'd be depixelized in a matter of just a half-second. Something wasn't right. And she knew the whole truth.

"Without going to Lyoko?" Jeremie asked, almost half-appalled.

Franz chuckled a little. "Of course."

Aelita was next to talk. "But, uh, who are you?"

The man stopped typing.

"I, even though I'm suspicious of this man right now, believe his name is Franz Hopper, Aelita," Cassidy felt a tug at her heart to say more. The same tug that told her to tell the others, but she didn't know which moment was right. She drew it down in her visions notebook, but she had no idea where to spring the confession of a lifetime.

That shocked the others.

"I'm the one that created Lyoko, and XANA, too, but then I lost control of it," Franz Hopper continued after Cassidy. "In the very beginning it was a program I design to counter a military project."

"Project Carthage," Cassidy realized in a whisper to herself.

He seemed to have heard her as he gave a nod. "It was based on a multi-agent system."

"Well, what about me?" Aelita asked the two.

"Huh, I created you to be the guardian of Lyoko."

Cassidy was still staring at him with such an unfriendly stare. _Franz Hopper didn't _"create"_ Aelita. He _had_ her with his wife. Boy, am I going to tongue-lash him until his pixilated ears turn to dust._

"But I'd never thought I'd see you one day in flesh and blood," he continued.

That deepened the cold stare on Cassidy's face.

Aelita smiled though.

"But then where have you been for these last few years," Ulrich asked.

"Well, let's say I was a kind of prisoner, but finally managed to escape," he turned his attention to the screen.

_You haven't escaped anything, _Franz!_ Not yet!_

Yumi gasped though, but she regained her composure. "What now then?"

"We've got to destroy XANA once and for all," Franz Hopper's voice had an edge to it.

"Franz, Aelita has a link/virus that our old friend XANA gave her. Killing XANA equals adios Aelita," Cassidy explained in her calmest voice.

He looked to Aelita with concern. "We'll find the antivirus/breaker, you'll see."

"Sure," Jeremie said, "but how?"

"Well, that, young man, is why I came. I'm here to help," Franz laid a hand on Jeremie's shoulder.

_Don't you dare touch him! Or I'll go over and, I don't know how, but I'll _deactivate_ that tower you set up, XANA!_

Jeremie was confident.

**-Jeremie's room with Jeremie, Cassidy, and Aelita-**

"He's very fatherly. Actually, in a way, he is my father. He's the one that created me," Aelita told Jeremie.

_Or had you, Aelita._ After leaving the factory, Cassidy's hostility stopped. Now her thoughts were kind of warm.

"That's true. I adore my own dad, but he's sure no genius," Jeremie explained.

"I love my dad, too," Cassidy said. "He was in the marines, but he retired years ago."

"This Franz Hopper guy is a real live genius," he continued.

"Well, that's it for me, I'm going to go to bed," Aelita was tired.

"Okay, goodnight."

Cassidy nodded. "I'm going to stick around to talk to Jeremie for a little bit."

Aelita nodded and left. "Goodnight, Jeremie."

"Goodnight, Aelita. I'll be upstairs in a minute," Cassidy promised.

After she left, Cassidy got in a few words with Jeremie. "I know I know things that are about to happen and I don't think that Franz Hopper is who he says he is. We have to be careful."

He nodded. "Goodnight, Cassidy."

"'Night, Jeremie," she yawned.

**-The next morning (get excited)-**

Jeremie woke up to his phone ringing. He picked it up. _"Jeremie, it's me."_

"Franz…?" He was still in a kind of daze.

"_No, Michael," _said that same voice, _"your father. Do you know why I'm calling?"_

Cassidy and the others came in carrying the biggest grins in the whole school.

"_Happy birthday, big guy!" _his dad said.

Jeremie turned around and there were his friends, and Kiwi. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EINSTEIN!" they all yelled.

Cassidy gave him a hug that nearly lifted Jeremie up off the ground. Then she set him down, and let the others join in with their part of the birthday.

"_By the way, your mother's worried about you. You should call us more often. Now have you thought about that school for Gifted Children?"_

Aelita gave Jeremie a kiss on his head.

"_Jeremie?"_

"Uh, yeah, sure. Um—okay, Dad, sure. Um, listen, I have to go, my friends just came in. Talk to you soon," Jeremie said to his dad and hung up on him.

He put his cell phone away.

Odd came up to Jeremie with his gift. "Here, a present!"

Jeremie looked at it.

"What are you waiting for? Go on, open it," Ulrich half-urged.

He opened it, much to Odd's pleasure, and found a drawing of the gang. From left to right: Cassidy, Odd (holding Kiwi), Ulrich, Jeremie, Aelita, and Yumi were standing and sharing a smile.

"Wow!" Jeremie exclaimed. "It's great!"

"And the best part? Odd did this drawing directly from memory." Cassidy smiled her quirky smile. "I just helped him with the details."

"So you can imagine the effort it took," Ulrich joked lightly.

Everyone, minus Odd and Cassidy, had a good laugh out of that one.

"Thanks everyone!" Jeremie said.

"It's your party! Take it anywhere. Heck, take it on the Midnight Train or to Lyoko or wherever," Cassidy dramatically said.

Yumi giggled a little. If someone could be _that_ good at jokes and dramatics and it was _not_ Odd, give it to Cassidy.

"Hey, speaking of Lyoko, how about going over to the factory now? I sure can't wait to see Franz again!" Jeremie said excitedly.

"You're the leader and birthday boy on this one, Jeremie. We'll follow you like Jesus' disciples," Cassidy nodded and everyone agreed.

**-Factory-**

"You use the scanners to virtualize human beings?" Franz sounded shocked when Jeremie told him.

"Well, yes," Jeremie explained.

This time Cassidy felt both hostile and scared at the same time.

"It's our way of deactivating towers when and if found," Cassidy nodded, a frown crossing her features.

"The virtualization process was not ready for that, yet," Franz said, gazing at the both of them.

The psychic girl wanted so badly to say, "And how do you know that, XANA?" but kept her mouth shut. She knew that XANA wanted to drive wedges in the group on Jeremie's birthday. She knew the truth.

"It's a very dangerous procedure," continued he, "with dangerous side-effects."

"Everyone used the scanners and no one had any side-effects. Not one of us had cell degeneration," Cassidy scowled.

**-Everyone's tested, time for the results-**

"Odd seems okay," Franz told Jeremie and Aelita. "Ulrich, too. But, Yumi and Cassidy…"

There were two alarms for the both of them. Both seemed to have a neurological degeneration.

That panicked Aelita and Jeremie.

"No!" Jeremie yelled. It couldn't be possible. It just couldn't be. "It can't be!"

**-In front of the school-**

"I can't believe it," Yumi was really shocked about it.

Cassidy wasn't. "The test results could have been faked."

"_Could have been faked!_ Listen to yourself, Cassidy. You're in denial!" Ulrich shouted to her.

"I'm not in denial, Ulrich! I'm quite sure that the results were faked to make it look like Yumi and I have some neurological degeneration or something like that," Cassidy yelled back.

"What a nightmare!" Yumi sounded like she was ready to cry.

"Nice one, Einstein. Dr. Shrank transplants animal limbs onto human beings. But compared to you, he's small time," Odd said to Jeremie.

"Odd, cut it out!" Cassidy told him.

Odd turned to her. "No! This is too big a problem."

She sighed. No one believed her except for probably Jeremie.

"I couldn't have known," Jeremie was still shell-shocked. "I'm sorry, Yumi, Cassidy."

"You're_ sorry?_ That's not going to help cure Cassidy and Yumi," Ulrich defended them, even though Cassidy didn't need defending.

"Lay off, Ulrich," Cassidy told him in a warning voice.

Jeremie came up to the two. "Yumi, Cassidy, I—"

Yumi stood up. "Leave me alone, Jeremie. I need to be by myself. 'Coming, Ulrich?"

She left with Ulrich.

**-That night, cafeteria-**

"I'm sure there is a way to cure Cassidy and Yumi," Jeremie said to the others.

"We don't know exactly what's wrong with them." Odd refused to eat a single bite of his favorite: spaghetti and meatballs.

"Nothing, Odd," Cassidy held her strong front quite nicely.

"You see? Still in denial after the diagnosis," Ulrich yelled at her again.

"How many times do I have to tell you: I'm not in denial?" Cassidy shouted.

"I'll work it out. I promise, I will," Jeremie promised.

"I think you've done enough damage as it is," Ulrich turned his attention to the genius.

"What do you mean by that?" the genius was befuddled. "That everything's been my fault since the very start."

"Yeah!" Cassidy defended. "Don't start taunting Jeremie. He has done some good for this Earth. He's really meant."

"Quoting Subsonics lines, is that it? Or are you defending him for good luck?" Ulrich switched from him to her.

"No!"

He turned from her to him. "You're the brains in this outfit, _Einstein!_"

Cassidy's anger amped up by two degrees. "Don't you dare call him that in that tone!"

That was it. Jeremie couldn't take it anymore, so he stood up and took his tray up.

Aelita stood up, too, and said this before leaving, "You know Ulrich! If it weren't for the scanners, I wouldn't be here!"

Cassidy stood up and, before she took her tray up, "And if it weren't for the scanners, I would still be on Lyoko until Jeremie found the materialization program for me for when I was in the digital sea. And I would probably have been directly disintegrated for when Yumi and I switched bodies. Plus, as an added burn, if it weren't for the scanners, we wouldn't have been able to save Aelita on a daily basis. Thanks, Ulrich!" she left.

**-At Yumi's house-**

Yumi's parents were concerned for their daughter. Her mom was the first to speak. "Yumi, are you okay?"

"I'm—not very hungry, tonight." Yumi's head was full of thoughts and concern.

Hiroki laughed. "Oh, Ulrich, I _love_ you!"

Yumi and Hiroki's mom was not happy with the latter. "Hiroki."

"I'm going to bed," Yumi was kind of sad. Not for the tease, but for what she'd been, as Cassidy said it, "so-called diagnosed" with.

She left without another word.

Cho (Yumi's mom) stood up. "That's it then, we're in the thick of it now."

Takeo looked up from his dinner. "Of what?"

She looked to him. "A teenage crisis."

Hiroki ignored them and kept eating.

**-Jeremie's room-**

Jeremie stared at the picture. All in one day, it seemed that the world would work out for him, but now it turned upside down with Cassidy, Aelita, and him still sane.

He turned away from it. It was not fair to him. First his birthday was all good, then it turned out to be cold prickles from the tests on his friends.

**-Cassidy and Aelita's room-**

They both were staring up at the ceiling. Cassidy was thinking of her tongue lashing speech to XANA and what to put in the recipe.

Aelita was thinking of Cassidy and Yumi's fate. What would happen?

An owl hooted outside.

**-Odd and Ulrich's room-**

They were thinking of Cassidy and Yumi too.

Kiwi slept peacefully, snoring as he did so.

**-Yumi's room-**

She was still awake too. Then her cell phone rang. "Hello," she said into the mouthpiece.

"_Yumi, it's Franz."_

**-Lab-**

"I have some good news," he was typing away and talking at the same time. "Tell the others and meet me first thing tomorrow at the factory."

"_Okay, we'll be there!" _Yumi came through.

He hung up the inter-communications unit.

**-The next day at the factory-**

The gang was piled into the elevator. Cassidy was prepared with her tongue-lasher speech. She had a quiet, but determined look on her face, mixed with just the right mix of hostility, with no added fear.

The elevator opened to the lab.

"I now know how to program the antivirus which would free Aelita. All I need now is the data from Sector 5," Franz announced as they all surrounded him.

_First, I'll separate you from your chair, then we will battle._ Cassidy solidly nodded as if she understood him.

"Great," Aelita said.

Cassidy stayed with Jeremie to keep him company. He looked to her. "Do you have a plan?"

"Yes," she whispered. "Plus I know who this imposter's identity is."

"Who?"

"This time I'm going to let you figure it out," Cassidy smiled a little.

Jeremie nodded. She sometimes didn't want to spill out the attack when told to do so.

"We'll go and get it then," Aelita told Franz.

Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd smiled.

"I thought the scanners were too dangerous to use." Jeremie and Cassidy came up to him as if by a secret bondage.

"If we want to get to Sector 5, then we have no choice," Franz said.

"It'll be our final mission," Odd rejoiced a little.

"Okay, what are we—" He meant himself and Cassidy—"supposed to do?"

"If I was you two, I'd stay out of the way," Franz didn't know that Cassidy was getting a little more hostile when he said those words.

"Oh, no, I'm going with my friends to Sector 5. There's no way that I'm sitting out this mission," Cassidy pushed her glasses back into place.

"Perhaps…but you're the one who is the dangerous psychic. You're the one who put your friends' lives at risk. And you're the one who almost destroyed the factory the second time that you were in the scanner room," Franz used the words, and Cassidy's scowl deepened.

"It's not fair! Everyone blames me for everything! And after all, we all turned the supercomputer back on together!" Jeremie went next.

Franz turned to Jeremie. "Perhaps... but you were the one who played the Sorcerer's apprentice. You're the one who put your friends' lives at risk. And you're the one who almost let XANA _destroy my diary_!"

Jeremie was majorly ticked off. "Fine, I get it!" He turned around to leave. Cassidy stayed put. She wanted to give XANA the fullest extent of her wrath.

Jeremie went into the elevator. Aelita tried to stop him. "Jeremie…" She ran off after him, but the elevator doors shut before she had a chance to talk him into staying.

She was devastated in some ways.

Franz turned to the others. "Right, shall we?"

Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi smiled as if to say, "Yes."

Cassidy smiled. Some alone time with the enemy. _Perfect._

Franz turned to the computer screen.

**-With Jeremie-**

Jeremie was contemplating his place as he looked at the picture Odd gave him yesterday. He felt turned against. Cast off in some ways.

He turned the frame over and put it on the table. He then called his dad.

"_Hello,"_ said his father's voice.

"Dad, it's me," Jeremie said.

"_Jeremie,"_ asked his father.

"You know that school for Gifted Children that you were talking about," Jeremie asked him.

"_Yes."_

"I want to go," He said to him. "Can you come and get me?"

"_When?"_

"As soon as possible," Jeremie said.

"_Okay, I'll be there tomorrow," _Michael said to him.

"Oh, right, alright then," Jeremie said to him.

He hung up the phone.

**-With Franz-**

He virtualized Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd. One half of Cassidy wanted her to go to Lyoko, amid the consequences, but the other half told her that she had a prior commitment to work on with Franz.

**-Sector 5-**

The three Lyoko Warriors landed in the arena. "Hey, we've arrived directly in Sector 5," Ulrich noticed.

Cassidy was allowed some contact. _"Franz thinks the Transporter is a little _outdated."

The walls opened up and the three friends went over to the Core Zone.

**-Jeremie-**

He was sitting at his desk recounting what Franz had said to both him and Cassidy.

"_And you're the one who almost destroyed the factory the second time that you were in the scanner room." _

"_And you're the one who almost let XANA _destroy my diary!"

He flashed back to the day that they went to the train station and found the suitcase with the engraving FH. "Franz Hopper," Cassidy had said. "This is his diary!"

"But how could he have known that the diary was almost destroyed?" Jeremie asked himself back in the present.

"Maybe we'll find out more about the mysterious owner of the Hermitage," Yumi had said that day.

"Everything's encrypted. I'll have to decode it," Jeremie remembered saying.

Then he flashed back to the day that Odd was first virtualized. And how Cassidy inadvertly almost destroyed the factory by using an earthquake in a hidden power.

"And how could he have known the factory was nearly destroyed?"

But Jeremie stopped the power in its tracks, even though Cassidy had a little amnesia from the event.

"_And you're the one who almost destroyed the factory the second time that you were in the scanner room."_

Jeremie went over to look at the suitcase with the engraving on it. It was still in one piece, and so were the CDs.

"_And you're the one who almost let XANA _destroy my diary!"

"How could Franz Hopper know that?"

"XANA did it. He zapped my back and now it'll be an ugly scar for the rest of my life," Cassidy had scowled when they stopped Jeremie's XANA possession.

Later, Cassidy had said this, "Luckily, XANA didn't destroy Franz Hopper's CDs this time," though she had no clue what she had said.

"_And you're the one who almost let XANA _destroy my diary!"

That last bit made Jeremie realize. "XANA!"

**-With Franz and the others-**

"The countdown has begun. Clean up and I'll send Aelita over," Franz told the three fighters.

"_Alright," _Yumi's voice sounded.

He cut off the communications from there. Cassidy was still frowning. "You know, Franz, everything was okay before you came. You deactivated around four out of five towers, told everyone that you created Lyoko and XANA—both of which are true—and Aelita—but that sir is untrue."

"Oh, and what makes you say that?" Franz turned to address her.

"You didn't create Aelita by using Lyoko. You created her using your wife, Antea. She had pink hair, too. You are Aelita's father, not creator!"

"Is everything okay, you two?" Aelita asked from the scanner room.

"Yes, Aelita, we're fine," Franz covered it up.

**-Jeremie-**

He was coming to his friends' rescues.

**-Back to Franz and Cassidy-**

As soon as everything was still, Odd's voice broke out, _"Franz, I don't mind cleaning up, but we're gonna need some industrial strength detergents."_

Franz turned to the computer screen. "No problem! I programmed each of you new weapons."

"_I don't see what's new about this."_ Odd said.

_I'm not done giving XANA-Franz a tongue lash. _

Soon six Creepers were done, out of the way, finished.

"_Cool! Homing darts,"_ Cassidy could hear a grin.

**-Jeremie-**

He was at the factory.

**-Back to the others-**

Ulrich took out two enemies by using some sort of energy field from his sword.

Yumi's fan took out three Creepers while they travelled a farther distance than their original length.

Ulrich took out Creeper #12 while it was in close range. He then located the key. "There's the key! Leave it to me!"

Odd kept shooting his homing laser arrows at his enemies and Yumi took out two from behind him.

"Ulrich, how are you doing?" she asked him.

Ulrich dodged two lasers. "It's a done deal." He then took out the two Creepers and got to the key mechanism. He pressed a hand on it and landed.

"_Well done, Ulrich," _Franz said to him.

The door opened.

**-Jeremie-**

He pressed the down button for the scanner room. He was with a plan. But with a little worry, he hoped that Cassidy was smart to keep her mouth shut on his location.

**-Sector 5-**

The door went up again as two more Creepers started shooting at Yumi but she used her fan as a shield, checking her virtual nails as she did so.

Odd jumped in, shot a laser arrow up into the air and got rid of the two Creepers.

He back-flipped and longed for more. "It's almost too easy…I want more Creepers."

**-To the Lab-**

"Don't worry Odd. It's not over yet. I got more surprises in store for you," Franz told him.

He uploaded something in the blink of an eye.

"You think you're so tough, XANA?" Cassidy scathed.

"Very clever, Cassidy. How do you know such things?" Franz's voice took an undertone to it.

"My first name means clever. And plus I'm psychic," Cassidy growled.

"Oh, then you must tell me everything you know." XANA-Franz kept typing.

"No!" she ran up to do a high kick on him, but he electrocuted her with his powers.

"You must tell me."

"In your complicated motherboard's dreams!" She spat out.

"Aelita, are you ready for virtualization," XANA-Franz's voice lost the undertone.

**-With Aelita-**

"Yes," Aelita said.

She was about to go into the scanners when Jeremie made it down to the scanner room.

She was about to say something when Jeremie shushed her, making her a little confused.

**-XANA-Franz is starting up the virtualization process-**

"Here we go!"

Soon Aelita was on Lyoko's Desert Sector. "Yumi? Ulrich? Odd?" She was stranded on a piece of plateau, with no means to get toward any other land. "Franz, I'm not in Sector 5. What's going on?"

**-In the lab-**

"Everything's under control," Franz said.

The elevator opened to reveal Jeremie. Cassidy was happy, though in a little pain at the same time.

"Thank goodness you came," she mouthed, the look in her eyes looked a little glassy, but she was still conscious.

Franz turned around. "Jeremie, what are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to see how you're managing, XANA," Jeremie accused correctly.

Cassidy nodded. Someone figured out the name.

"Very clever, Jeremie," Franz commented.

"Well, he is the brains in the group, XANA," Cassidy shakily got up to her feet, but her knees buckled and Jeremie had to catch and steady her before he went up to attack.

XANA-Franz shocked him and bowled him over to her. "Very clever, Jeremie," He repeated with the undertone. "But you're too late."

Jeremie turned to Cassidy. "Did you reveal where I was?"

"Nope, besides I can be trusted to keep locations safe and sound," Cassidy smiled a little, but frowned again.

XANA-Franz went back to typing.

Jeremie got off Cassidy, breathing a "You better not repeat this to anyone, understood?" to her.

"My lips are sealed, mi amigo," Cassidy's eyes were back to normal.

Jeremie nodded. She was using Spanish again, a sure sign that Cassidy was coming into normalcy.

**-Lyoko-**

The three were surrounded by Creepers. Odd decided to make a challenge of this. "Hey, want to make this a contest?" Ulrich agreed. "Whoever gets the most wins."

Odd tried using his laser arrows but they didn't come out. Ulrich and Yumi unsheathed their weapons, but they disappeared in a show of pixilated dust.

"What's going on?" Yumi asked. "Franz?"

A Creeper shot Ulrich in the stomach and this time it hurt.

"Something's wrong!" Odd said.

Another Creeper tried to shoot Odd, but he jumped onto another platform, almost losing his balance, but he caught himself just in time. He looked up to his friends. "Let's get out of here!"

They had no choice but to run. "I get the feeling we've been double crossed," Yumi said.

"And Cassidy's not responding," Odd said.

"No kidding!" Ulrich replied.

They went into a different room, and Odd said, "Bye," to the Creepers following them.

**-To XANA-Franz, Cassidy, and Jeremie-**

"Your friends are in trouble. I fixed things so that they could never rematerialize! No more life points! And it's bye-bye! And now for the grand finale!" XANA-Franz said.

"Not quite," she whispered to Jeremie. "Did you fix it with Aelita?"

Jeremie nodded. "The decoy's ready."

"Good."

**-To the so-called "Grand finale"-**

The decoy Aelita saw the Schyphozoa and started to panic. Nowhere to go. So her memory was at the jellyfish-monster's disposal.

**-Sector 5-**

"What now?" Ulrich asked.

"Well, there's only one thing to do. Franz, we need help!" Odd called out.

"No, not Franz. XANA," Yumi saw the activated tower. It was a trick all along.

Odd and Ulrich saw the tower too.

"This must be the surprise," Odd said.

"If Cassidy were here, she would have told us that Franz Hopper was XANA all along," Ulrich half-mourned.

"No wonder!" Odd snapped.

The Creepers came in and tried to shoot at them but they dodged.

**-Desert Sector-**

The decoy's memory was being drained right down to the last drop.

**-Lab-**

Jeremie and Cassidy pretended to wear shocked looks.

**-Sector 5-**

The three temporarily defenseless Lyoko Warriors faced their three Creepers. Ulrich with his, Yumi with hers, and Odd with his.

Odd showed off some rad boxing skills.

Yumi got rid of hers and helped Ulrich out with his whom then helped Odd.

"Ciao!" Odd saluted his literally fallen enemy.

They turned around to see Yumi surrounded by three more Creepers.

**-Factory-**

The decoy (but not in XANA-Franz's eyes) was draining and draining fast.

"Admit you're defeated, Jeremie, and Cassidy," XANA-Franz told them.

They gave him a look that said, "No," but in a smiling way.

"No, not this time," Jeremie had the platform.

XANA-Franz turned his attention to the screen again.

**-Desert Sector-**

The Schyphozoa let go of the Aelita decoy and started to do a crazy dance.

Inside the bruised-by-bullets membrane, it was alive with electricity and the decoy watched.

**-Let's see the results-**

"What is the meaning of this?" XANA-Franz asked the two.

Jeremie and Cassidy smiled and said together as if they had rehearsed it for years, "A decoy!"

**-The scanner room-**

It turned out that the real Aelita was working on the decoy's basic functions on Lyoko. She smiled because she knew it must've worked.

**-Back in the lab-**

"What? NO!" XANA-Franz yelled at the both of them.

They both laughed with the look of success in their bespectacled eyes.

He dissipated in a swirl of static and ghostliness (to which Jeremie said, "Wow!") and went up to the ceiling. Jeremie was in the hot seat again. He worked the programs back over **(A/N: YAY LIFEPOINTS)** to normal.

Cassidy watched with a smile on her face and no hostility. She knew the truth and she knew everything was semi-right in the world until later.

**-Lyoko-**

Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd were about to admit their defeat. "I often wondered when this would all end. Now I know." Yumi was feeling defeated in that claim, too. "This is it."

**-Lab-**

But, what they didn't know was that Jeremie was in the cushy chair once again, with Cassidy watching beside him.

**-Lyoko-**

The three Creepers fired. Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi dodged easily.

**-Lab-**

Jeremie was typing on the programs and with the push of the enter key, replaced the programs everyone needed.

"Good work, Jeremie," Cassidy was about to slip out of consciousness.

He steadied her again. "Just wait until the attack gets over, we do another test, and then you can sleep."

"I can agree to that," Cassidy smiled.

**-Lyoko-**

The Creepers fired again, and this time they didn't miss. Then Ulrich got devirtualized.

"It can't be!" Odd said.

"_Come on; don't be so pessimistic, Odd,"_ Jeremie's voice rang true.

That put smiles on both Yumi and Odd. "Jeremie?" Yumi asked for just verification.

"_Yes, it's me, come on, let's start over,"_ Jeremie was there.

Yumi's fans and Odd's arrows went back to their proper owners. Yumi shot a fan over to one of the Creepers and it exploded.

"_And he'll send Aelita in a minute, guys, just to let you know,"_ Cassidy's voice came in, too.

Odd shot a laser arrow to another Creeper and got rid of the other as well.

"Nothing like my trusty old gear," Odd rejoiced in his way.

"_Yep,"_ Cassidy said.

"What about Ulrich," Yumi asked.

"_He's back on Earth,"_ Cassidy explained. _"Don't worry!"_

**-Lab-**

"Ready Aelita?" Jeremie asked the lone female in the scanner room.

**-Scanner Room-**

"Yes, Jeremie," Aelita went into the scanner and got virtualized to the Ice Sector.

**-Ice Sector-**

"_Virtualization."_

Aelita landed professionally and went to the edge of the Sector.

**-Where Odd and Yumi are-**

Yumi got hit by a Manta, and Odd was about to defend her when he got hit by a Creeper. **(A/N: How ironic is that?)**

Yumi got rid of the Creeper.

**-With Aelita-**

"_Aelita, I'm entering the code SCIPIO!"_ Jeremie told her.

The transporter came and took her to Sector 5.

**-The lab-**

The ghost came back and switched targets from Jeremie to Cassidy. It entered Cassidy and blocked her windpipe. She pulled out her notepad and wrote in big letters: CAN'T BREATHE!

Jeremie looked at it and panicked. If Cassidy died, a return in time couldn't stop it.

**-Sector 5-**

As soon as the Transporter landed and dropped Aelita off, Jeremie said, _"Aelita, hurry and deactivate that tower. Cassidy's in trouble."_

"On it, Jeremie!" Aelita nodded and when the walls opened for her, she ran as quickly as she could to the direction her friends took.

**-With Jeremie and Cassidy-**

Cassidy was wheezing for air as Ulrich came up in the elevator. "What's going on Jeremie? Is she alright?"

"XANA blocked her airways. If Aelita doesn't deactivate that tower, then Cassidy will die," Jeremie explained quickly.

"_Jeremie, I'm in the core zone," _Aelita said.

"Aelita, hurry. If Cassidy dies, a return trip won't help," Jeremie told her.

**-Lyoko-**

Aelita ran in and said, "Hurry! Cassidy's in trouble!" She found the gap between the tower and the platform then backing up a few, she ran, jumped, used the Manta as a springboard and deactivated the tower in a hurry.

"Tower deactivated."

**-Lab-**

Jeremie and Ulrich were trying to help Cassidy in the best way they could until the ghost exited her and she could breathe normally. She looked around at her friends.

"Don't worry, girl. Everything's okay, now," Ulrich smiled.

She got up and hugged them. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it," Ulrich smiled a little wider.

**-Later the next day in Jeremie's room-**

Cassidy was still snoozing a little, but she deserved it.

"Of course, I'm not angry at you! What's more, I checked out you and Cassidy's bio-schematic during your materialization phase. There's no sign of alteration, whatsoever," Jeremie explained.

"Oh, what a relief!" Yumi smiled.

Cassidy opened one eye and said to Ulrich, "Told you so!"

"Sorry about that, Cassidy. Go back to sleep," Ulrich told her.

She did as she was told.

"He really had me scared, that Franz Hopper," Yumi said.

"That _false_ Franz Hopper. The real one is still somewhere on Lyoko," Jeremie said.

There was a knock on the door. Everyone, minus Cassidy, looked to see Jeremie's father—a man with golden-brown hair and a smile that matched Jeremie sometimes. He was wearing a brown overcoat with a black zip up shirt and red pants.

"Dad!" Jeremie kind of almost yelped.

"Are you ready, son, let's go," said Michael.

"Wait, things have changed. Let me explain," Jeremie took his father outside.

Odd poked Cassidy awake and asked her, "Is he going away?"

"No, Odd." She went back to sleep.

**-With Jeremie and his dad-**

"You sure you've thought it over," he asked his son.

"Yes. I'm really sorry that I made you come all the way out here for nothing," Jeremie said.

"Don't you worry about it," he said to him. "And don't forget to give us a call from time to time."

Jeremie smiled. "I promise."

His father left him and Jeremie smiled. He was going to stay at Kadic with his friends.

He went back to his room to four expectant faces.

"Hey, what's going on here? Where were you going?" Odd asked him.

"Nowhere," Jeremie said to him.

"Your father seems like a really nice guy," Aelita said.

Jeremie smiled. "Yeah. I love him. He's great!"

"Like father, like son," Ulrich teased a little.

The genius of the group didn't have to say a thing. He went over to the drawing that Odd gave him and turned it back to where it was, causing some laughter in the group.

Cassidy saw the photo being put back it its spot and smiled. The group was now whole again.


	28. Someone's out to Contact us!

**(If you could read the following disclaimer, then congratulations, you figured that it is backwards)**

**.okoyL edoC nwo t'nod I**

**.ydissaC nwo od I**

**(If you couldn't, then Here is the forward disclaimer)**

**I don't own Code Lyoko.**

**I do own Cassidy.**

Jeremie was working on the breaker/antivirus for five hours, but there was no sign of a break or an antivirus. Frustrated, he tried again.

Yumi, Cassidy (who was smiling and wasn't tired), and Ulrich came from the elevator.

Cassidy was holding something behind her back. She wanted to show the shape of whatever was behind her back.

Ulrich was curious. "What's that behind your back?"

Cassidy's eyes looked innocent. "Nothing."

Ulrich shrugged. It's probably nothing lethal if it looks like a scrap piece of paper. He turned to Jeremie.

"You look awfully down today. What's the problem?" Yumi asked.

"He's been working a little too hard on the breaker/antivirus, and decoding Franz's diary," Cassidy answered for her. "He hasn't moved a centimeter though."

"Just a question of time." Yumi smiled. Cassidy was the lead psychic in the group. She was good.

"And you?" asked Ulrich.

"The same nightmare that happened before Jeremie here went to Limbo," she sighed. She handed over the paper.

It looked clearer, but it didn't show any more detail. It looked a little off.

Ulrich looked up from the paper. "Uh, oh, okay, I think I know two people who need to air out their neurons a bit. And here's how we do it!"

"Odd's film?" Cassidy guessed.

Ulrich got a hint annoyed. _For once will you give up on the psychic predictions?_

"Nope." The now-the-same-age-as-Yumi girl smiled.

"Did you read his mind again?" Yumi asked.

"Am I that obvious?" she rolled her eyes.

"Hey! That's my line!" Jeremie smiled.

"Not for the moment," Cassidy teased.

"By the way, who's in the film?" Jeremie asked.

"No one knows. Even Cassidy clamped down on her psychic thoughts. She had gone off doing who-knows-what with Odd," Ulrich frowned.

"The director would like everyone in this factory to know that he does not like any of his workers to spoil," Cassidy spat back at Ulrich.

**-Let's see what happens next-**

Everyone was talking about Odd's newest film. Milly and Tamiya asked Cassidy a bunch of questions about the film but she kept her mouth firmly closed, but gave this little tidbit: "The director wants me to keep the film's plot, characters, et cetera, a secret. I'm sorry, girls, but Odd does not like a spoiler."

Soon everyone was in their seats.

Cassidy squirmed with excitement. She had a sparkle in her eye. Odd noticed right away and said to her, "'really excited about this, Cassidy?"

She nodded. "This will be totally cool," she squealed in a whisper.

Odd shushed her. One slip and the whole film's secrets would be the talk of the school, thus ruining it.

Chardin came up to the podium. "Welcome to the Kadic Academy's film club short film night!" He went on to list names **(A/N: That the author does **_**not**_** know how to spell thanks to Chardin's accent)**.

Odd smiled at Cassidy. This was it.

Ulrich sat next to them. "How's it going, Odd? No butterflies yet?"

"Nope," Odd answered with zest.

"You'd never guess," Ulrich cracked.

The brown-haired girl had her bangs up in a clip. "Shhh! Chardin is talking."

"…into full length features," the aforementioned man continued, "which is why…"

Cassidy smiled and said to Odd, "It's coming! I can feel it!"

"You know it, Cat-Girl," Odd smiled.

"This short film is, was, and always will be an important out form," Chardin was babbling on, as happy as a clam, "which can say as much as full-length feature. Our first film is by Odd Della Robbia."

"It _is _coming now, just you wait, Odd," Cassidy spark-flashed.

"…and is titled, rather poetically, Natural Grandeur," He continued. "No one has seen it yet, but it is enough to imagine…" something "…on the fragility of our ecosystem, which…" He stopped when the film started to roll. **(A/N: *As Niles* PRAISE THE LORD)**

Odd was onscreen first, running down the dormitory hallway, in a panic. He was running away from something, but was stopped by a cosplay of Jim.

"What's all this racket about, huh?" Romain, playing Jim, asked the Odd onscreen.

Everyone started laughing, including the _real_ Jim until he realized who he was laughing at.

"We have to get out of here," the Odd on the screen had a close-up. "She-she's coming! I tell you: She's—she's bigger than life! We gotta get out of here! Her almost-correct Southern accent is a horror. She can knit a GIANT SCARF!"

Cassidy smiled and laughed. Odd could make anyone laugh, well, except Ulrich, but she still laughed at his (deemed bad by Ulrich) good jokes.

"Are you crazy, Della Robbia? Do you know how tall that would make her?" Romain kept his Jim accent from slipping. "I think you've lost your senses. Alright, let's go to the infirmary."

Everyone was laughing, even Odd (the director) himself. The comedy in the film knocked everybody's socks (or shoes) off.

Odd onscreen tried to resist Romain's grip. "NO!" The two went outside the dorm building. Then the ground began shaking underneath their feet.

"It's too late! SHE'S FOUND US!" Odd onscreen yelled.

Cassidy came onscreen as a giantess. She had a pair of knitting needles in the shorts pocket and a skein of yarn in one hand.

Odd and Romain backed up.

Cassidy off-screen was laughing so hard her glasses came off. Jeremie, in between chuckles, grabbed her glasses and helped put them back on.

The Cassidy onscreen looked at one hand. "Oh, shoot! I think I broke a nail. Darn them trees." She used her almost-correct Southern accent.

Off-screen everyone was in stitches, laughing super hard at the film. Cassidy and Sissi were too.

Onscreen, Cassidy's big hand reached for Odd and Romain.

But then Jim, who was now laughing again, accidentally slipped and ended up cutting the film shorter than usual.

Cassidy was trying for recovery but none came for her yet.

Sissi, who was still laughing came up to Odd as he recovered. "ODD, that film was—" A ghost similar to XANA's was circling around her—"the—was the—" the ghost entered. Sissi tried to make words come out of her mouth, but all that came was gibberish.

Cassidy recovered then. She blinked a few times to clear the tears of laughter from her eyes. She stood up as if she left her brain in the chair and grabbed Sissi's arm.

Cassidy's eyes went blank as if she was seeing something, but she wasn't. Together they walked toward Jeremie and Cassidy started speaking backwards. Sissi translated: "I can help you. I want to enter into contact with you now! I'm Franz Hopper. I can help you."

"I think they've lost their senses," Jim said aloud.

Cassidy gasped. She said something backwards, and Sissi said, "No. No."

She tried speaking with Spanish, but utterly failed as Sissi did not know that language.

"Atilea **(1)**," Cassidy tried saying Aelita's name.

Aelita's eyebrows rose. "What?"

Cassidy whispered something backwards to Sissi. The girl gasped and slapped the psychic across the face.

"What did she say?" Aelita asked Sissi.

"She insulted me."

"Ti ot desu teg llew heay," Cassidy muttered.

"What?" Ulrich asked.

"Yeah, well, get used to it," Sissi translated.

Yumi whispered to Cassidy, "Do you think it could be _XANA?"_

"Eimerej ksa," Cassidy muttered.

"Ask Jeremie," Sissi translated.

Just then the presence caught up with the two girls and Cassidy was able to let go of Sissi's arm.

"I think it must be the one who must not be named here in the auditorium," Cassidy said, back with speaking forward.

"What is the meaning of this?" Mr. Delmas asked.

"Nothing sir," Yumi told him.

Sissi started speaking backwards then.

"Is something wrong, Sweetheart?" Mr. Delmas asked, hands on her shoulders.

She kept speaking backwards. And it seemed to be the same message over and over again.

Jim came forward. "I'll take care of this, Mr. Delmas." He took Sissi in his hands. "I think you've lost your senses. Alright, let's go to the infirmary."

Everyone started to laugh. Odd's film was reminiscent in their minds.

That didn't help matters. Mr. Delmas waved his hands around trying to calm the students down. "Alright, children, I want each of you to go quietly back to your rooms." He turned around to Jim. "Jim, you take care of the students. I'll take Sissi to the infirmary."

Yumi then repeated the question to Jeremie. "Do you think it's _XANA_?"

**-Jeremie's room-**

The super-scan was up and Jeremie was running it. "Nope, no activated towers—XANA's got nothing to do with it."

"I can hardly believe that Sissi and I were like a sound wave," Cassidy shuddered.

"No kidding, Danger Psychic. By the way, you did wonderful in Natural Grandeur. You really hit it off," Odd nudged Cassidy in the arm.

"Thanks, you did too. Great job on the panicked look," Cassidy complimented.

"Hey! It was thanks to your help that I looked natural," Odd shot back with a smile.

"And it was thanks to yours that I didn't look at the camera," Cassidy smiled.

Yumi walked in. "The nurse said that Sissi received an electric charge. She's in shock but fine. There's nothing to worry about."

"Good, but the way that I received her backward talk," Cassidy shuddered again.

"Ah, poor Sissi. I have to admit that she would have been the giantess if Cassidy didn't step in," Odd sighed.

"Right, false alarm. We can all sleep easy now," Jeremie reassured the gang.

Ulrich stretched. "Yeah. That works just fine because tomorrow is Sunday and on Sunday…"

Odd and Cassidy chimed in as if in perfect harmony. "WE SLEEP IN!"

"Dormimos el domingo," Cassidy shouted in Spanish.

Aelita laughed. "What?"

"We sleep on Sunday," Cassidy said in translation.

**-That night-**

Jeremie was woken up by Sissi coming in speaking backwards. "Sissi!"

Cassidy came running in. "She came to get me too. I was too scared to scream out."

Aelita came rushing in, almost bowling Cassidy over. "Cassidy's panting scared woke me up."

"Sissi, what has gotten into you? Huh?**!**" Jeremie was startled by Sissi walking over, picking up a pencil, and writing on a sheet of graph paper some sort of code.

Cassidy's eyes went white and Aelita, who took notice as this was the first time she saw this, didn't know what to do.

Jeremie knew exactly what to do thought. He made the "Watch and learn" gesture to the pink-haired girl, who nodded, and backhanded the psychic across the face.

Jim came in after Cassidy mouthed a "thank you" to Jeremie. "What's all this racket about, huh?"

That startled the fourteen year old and she started stammering about what happened as if she'd been given the third degree.

Jeremie stared at his psychic friend in shock. She'd been that way before. He held back a snicker as after Cassidy was done saying what had happened, she started quoting School of Rock's "The Man" speech. **(A/N: School of Rock is 2003)**

Jim only noticed Sissi. "Sissi, you should be in the infirmary. Your father's going to have my head again."

Cassidy stopped quoting right then. She shooed Aelita and herself to their room, leaving Jeremie to look at the paper. It said:

H (Lower cased with a triangle pointing in the east direction) Q W O A / 1 g / M 8 Q 6 N l heap

B (Lower cased) s f j z | 1 u IE (both lower cased and spaced out) U Q G J g 258 B |

M O R FF 7 Q J l / R 7 G K L N

K 3 t J R Q M F N P 6 3 7 A K M N

B A J u m I (the I is lower cased) w r e a N (backward though) H T h r M

-KK s l 337 M a t 4 65

O d G z V r g 8—6 45 Z MN

H 8 F P—64 | G o p 2 u/432/

(Slight indent) K L M—6 P9 L C

**-That's enough code for me thanks; the next morning-**

Ulrich was covered up from his head to his does in his blanket, all warm, when his phone rang. He groaned and grabbed the now-annoying device from the floor. "Jeremie, it's _Sunday_. Okay, we're coming," he groaned to his friend.

**-Factory-**

"A message in code?" Ulrich was now wide awake. "Written by Sissi?"

"Yep," Cassidy yawned. "Jeremie, Aelita and I were witnesses."

Odd noticed. "Why are you tired?"

"Sissi, that's why I'm tired," Cassidy snapped.

"I ran the supercomputer all night to translate it," Jeremie said, typing on the keyboard of the said computer.

The words rearranged to a message. "And look at what it turned up!" the genius pointed to the screen.

Sissi's backwards talking was there, but a deep distorted voice was in front saying, "I can help you. I want to enter into contact with you now…"

"_I can help you?_" Yumi repeated the first line.

"It's gotta be a trap set by XANA!" Ulrich snapped to conclusion.

"Not by XANA, Ulrich," Cassidy said grimly. "It's Franz Hopper. I know it! And…"

"Stop talking right now," Ulrich told her. "Anyway, he must've managed to possess Sissi without activating a tower."

"Will you stop acting as if I'm a bad person, Ulrich?" Cassidy said. "I never betrayed you."

"Okay, sorry, I get so annoyed by your predictions. It's like Professor Trelawney," Ulrich felt better after saying that.

"I don't think so. Cassidy's right. Otherwise, Sissi would've gone after me. She would have tried to get me out to Lyoko, so that the Schyphozoa could steal my memory," Aelita inputted.

Cassidy nodded. "I bet it's Franz Hopper."

"I still bet it's XANA!" Ulrich said.

"If I lose, I'll clamp down on my psychic blurt outs for a week at most."

"And if _I_ lose," Ulrich challenged.

Cassidy leaned in and whispered in Ulrich's ear. A few seconds later, he flinched. "WHAT?**!**"

"With a megaphone, with a happy face, and with Take Me Home Tonight playing," Cassidy crossed her arms in front of her chest, proud that she was betting against Ulrich.

"Okay," Ulrich groaned. "Sheesh materialism does not play games with you!"

"Aelita's right! If you ask me, someone or something want to contact us through Sissi, but it's not XANA," Jeremie told the group.

"I feel I'm winning," Cassidy sang to Ulrich.

"Don't make me eat my hat yet," Ulrich smiled to her.

"Well, then, who is it?" Odd asked.

"No idea," Jeremie said. "To find that out, we'll have to talk to Sissi again."

Yumi had a smile on her face. "Okay, I'll bring her over. Anyone care to join me?"

"I have to go to Lyoko, sorry, Yumi," Cassidy frowned.

"It's fine," Yumi nodded.

Odd perked up. "I will! I'm your man Yumi! I mean… you know what I mean!"

Ulrich and Cassidy looked to Jeremie. "We better look around Lyoko. I wanna make sure that XANA isn't setting some sort of trap," the boy put a hand on Jeremie's shoulder.

Cassidy smiled. Oh if he only knew that she was winning inside, and that tomorrow he would be doing her bidding.

"I'll go with you two," Aelita said.

"With the Schyphozoa and everything? It's too risky," Jeremie told Aelita.

"Jeremie, stop worrying about me," Aelita took matters into her own hands.

That made her knight in glasses glare at her a little.

Soon the two girls and the only boy were on Lyoko. Jeremie also materialized the OverBike and OverWing. Cassidy didn't mind it. "I'm used to other vehicles."

"Great timing! Nice work, Jeremie," Ulrich said.

"Ulrich, get ready to eat your hat!"

"I'd rather not!" Ulrich shouted back playfully at Cassidy.

She hopped on the OverWing. "Coming Aelita?"

Aelita shook her head. "I'd rather go with Ulrich."

The psychic cat didn't mind it. "I'll go on my own then."

"_Thanks, okay, make it fast. This is just a reconnaissance mission,"_ Jeremie sounded from Lyoko.

"We'll be careful," Cassidy balanced herself on the OverWing.

"Relax, we won't go crazy," Ulrich reassured Jeremie.

They both headed off to scout XANA activity.

**-With Odd and Yumi-**

Odd and Yumi headed back to school and found that Sissi was being taken to the hospital.

Odd called Jeremie. "Jeremie, bad news: Sissi's going to the hospital."

**-Lab-**

"Oh, no, we have to bring her back here," Jeremie sounded worried.

**-Back to Odd and Yumi-**

"No sweat," Odd sounded confident, even though a frown crossed his features. "I've got an idea."

He hung up on Jeremie. Yumi was a little suspicious. "Are you thinking what I think you're thinking?"

"Yeah, good thinking!" Odd smiled.

**-Jeremie-**

"Ulrich, Cassidy, Aelita, everything okay with you guys?" Jeremie asked.

**-Lyoko-**

"To tell you the truth I have no idea. Has the super-scan picked up an activated tower?"

"Nope, Ulrich," Cassidy said. "But I do see something that'll make you do the thing that I whispered to you!"

"_What is it?"_ Jeremie wondered to Cassidy.

"A white tower!" she told the sky. "Is that a XANA sign, Ulrich? It isn't to me."

Ulrich raised his brows. _She'd better not make me do that thing tomorrow._

"I'll send you a visual," Aelita told Jeremie and she did.

"_What the heck is that white tower supposed to be?"_ Jeremie said.

"It's Franz Hopper's tower, Jeremie," Cassidy kept her balance on the OverWing very well.

"How do you know that?" Ulrich sounded shocked.

"Psychic forces, Ulrich. Psychic forces," she told him.

"Do you think this tower has something to do with Sissi? Or with the being who's trying to contact us?" Ulrich dropped the subject on Jeremie.

"_Ask Cassidy!"_ Jeremie told Ulrich.

"What do you think, Cassidy?" he stopped the OverBike as she stopped the OverWing.

"It is," Cassidy nodded. "We have to protect it."

"Why?"

"Because then we won't get the message," Cassidy's brown eyes turned a little light brown.

"And I want to see this close up," Aelita told Ulrich.

The three went on their way.

**-Lab-**

Jeremie saw two red dots on the screen. Red dots meant danger.

"Ulrich, Cassidy, behind you!" He warned.

**-Lyoko-**

Two Megatanks were tailgating the three. Luckily, Cassidy was up in the air.

The two drivers gunned their engines as fast as they would go.

"Faster," Aelita panicked.

Ulrich tried to go faster, but couldn't. "I've got it floored."

Aelita then thought of something and tapped Ulrich's shoulder. "Go left!"

"Whoa! Are you sure about that? There's nothing to the left."

"Not yet, there isn't," Cassidy smiled. "Aelita, the honors are yours."

The pink-haired girl used her Creativity to make a path to the left. The two went to the left until they met an edge. Ulrich slammed on the brakes and a small rock fell into the digital sea. Cassidy stopped and hovered on the OverWing.

The two Megatanks kept going to the white tower.

The three looked to the Megatanks.

"_Well done, Aelita. But it's really weird how they didn't come back to attack you! Something's not right."_

"The white tower is a clue," Cassidy muttered.

Aelita realized something. "Jeremie, it wasn't us they were after!"

"They are trying to destroy the white tower," Ulrich said.

"_Hold them off!"_

Cassidy was on her way. "No sweat, like Odd said. I'm ready for anything."

"_How did you know that I was on the communications—never mind, just go!"_

"Okay," she smiled.

Ulrich turned to Aelita. "Feel like a little game of bowling?"

"What?" she was confused.

"_Forget about it! It's a bad joke,"_ Jeremie said.

"Sometimes I really crack myself up!" Ulrich smirked.

"And you've really confused Aelita there, Mister!" shouted Cassidy from the OverWing.

The two went over to where Cassidy was. She was off her OverWing and in fighting mode. She growled. "You want to turn this Tower off. Well, good luck, XANA!" she smirked too. Firing two rounds at the 'Tanks, she avoided shot after shot of the 'Tanks' fierce elliptical lasers.

They were destroyed and two more came in to take the two's places.

Ulrich took out his sword. This was going to get good. Cassidy didn't lose a life point. She was really good at keeping her life points at a good level.

**-Hospital-**

A nurse and Mr. Delmas held Sissi's hands. She was looking blankly ahead. Her heart rate went from sixteen to eighteen. Her father was worried. "Well, what's wrong with her?"

The nurse looked at the heart monitor then turned her attention to Mr. Delmas. "I haven't the slightest idea. We'll keep her here under observation for a couple of hours then we'll see."

Mr. Delmas felt that there was nothing he could do for his daughter. "Oh, very well. Let me know at the first sign of a change in her condition."

"Of course," The nurse (Named Sue Murphy) said.

Jean-Pierre came off the bed and went to get a drink. This was too much for the principal to handle.

A doctor and nurse were talking about a patient. "Such a sweet patient, he was really lucky."

Odd and Yumi passed by. He asked her, "So, what did the girl at the reception say?"

Yumi gave the info. "Room 237."

**-Back at the Lab-**

Jeremie typed on the super-scan and found **an activated tower.**

**-Hospital-**

Yumi's phone rang and she picked it up. "Jeremie?"

**-Back to lab-**

"I just located an activated tower. XANA is on the offensive," Jeremie sounded happy.

**-Back at the Hospital-**

A scream jolted the two teens. It was Sissi's scream in the forwards direction. Yumi hastened this reply, "Jeremie, we'll call you back."

They ran into Room 237 and found that Nurse Murphy was attacking Sissi. She had the eye of XANA in her eyes. The patient, on the other hand, was frightened.

With a cry of "Stop" Yumi was about to lunge forward and fight the nurse. But the nurse punched her.

Odd ran behind the nurse. Murphy picked Yumi up by the sweater and glared at her with blatant eyes. Then the nurse dropped her. In the middle of her stomach was nothing. Just an invisible stomach. She dropped to her hands and knees.

Odd was standing there with the defibrillator paddles in his hands, looking devious. "Poor thing. She had hypertension."

Yumi got to her feet, smiling. "Not anymore. Quick."

A few minutes later, they were out of the hospital room with Sissi in a wheelchair. Yumi called Jeremie. "It's okay Jeremie! We've got Sissi."

**-Lab-**

"Great," Jeremie was glad. "Bring her over to the factory and hurry up!"

"_It won't be that easy!"_ Yumi's voice came to his ear.

**-Hospital-**

"There's a doctor possessed by XANA who doesn't seem to like the idea," Yumi, Odd, and Sissi were out of the hospital by then.

**-Lab-**

"Ouch," Jeremie was typing.

**-Outside the hospital-**

Odd and Yumi were still walking Sissi.

**-Lab-**

"Ulrich, Cassidy, I've got some bad news!" Jeremie told them.

**-Lyoko-**

"A doctor possessed by XANA?" Cassidy guessed.

"_You are always on the ball there, Cassidy."_

Ulrich was now sitting behind Aelita on the OverBike, dragging his katana on the ground.

Aelita drove in the middle of the two 'Tanks. They fired their lasers, causing a V-shaped formation, missing the two warriors in the middle, and missing the one outside the laser fire.

Cassidy fired at the Megatank on the right, destroying it instantly.

Ulrich jumped off, ran up the white tower and jumped the one on the left, and killed it.

"_Activated tower in..."_

"The Ice Sector," Cassidy and Jeremie said together. The female cat warrior took charge immediately. "Ulrich, you lead Aelita to the activated tower. I'll protect the tower here."

"Are you nuts? You would be devirtualized by the time we get back," Ulrich shook his head.

"Stop underestimating me. You saw me one time stopping two Megatanks with only a sword like yours and one hand. I know that. You told me after we materialized Aelita," Cassidy spat back, shooting her fifth round at another Megatank. "Don't tell me I can't do it. American has the words I Can at the end, and I CAN do it. I dare to try."

Ulrich nose-sighed a growl. "You're as stubborn as a mule."

"Takes a person to know a person, Ulrich," she smart-mouthed back.

Ulrich had no choice. "Fine, but don't come running, crying to me when you come out of the scanner, devirtualized by a Megatank."

"Steer clear of the Schyphozoa," Cassidy told him.

"I know what to do!"

They left off, leaving Cassidy to work on her own.

"_Cassidy, are you sure you know what you're doing?"_ Jeremie asked.

"Yes, Jeremie," Cassidy shot a bullet at another Megatank, destroying it before it opened its shell.

She set to work immediately after that.

**-With Odd, Yumi, and Sissi-**

They were running fast because of the XANA-possessed doctor. She (Murphy) was in an ambulance, driving recklessly to the three.

Odd looked back, still pushing the wheelchair. "Let's get out of here. Here comes Dr. Doom."

_Good use of Fantastic Four, Odd,_ Cassidy's words complimented him. Somehow, without her, she gave compliments without throwing them out.

"Look out!" Yumi's words drug Odd out of his thoughts and he grabbed Sissi.

They got out of the way just in time.

Odd and Yumi surveyed the scene from above. "I hope she was wearing a seatbelt," he said.

Sissi, however, found her feet and slid down the rope. The two forward-speaking friends looked to each other in curiosity tinged with a slight suspicion.

**-Lyoko-**

Cassidy was faring well with the Megatanks. She dodged three laser shots and those three went to the ones firing. They combusted and Cassidy was growing confident. "Well, slap my vision journal and call it a success. This is getting good!"

"_I believe you," _Jeremie was proud. _"Ulrich was wrong. You _aren't _devirtualized yet."_

"Just goes to show." Dodging, Cassidy shot another one. Megatanks were easy to manage at either close- or far-range. She managed at far range while the others did it either that way or close-ranged.

Another one fired at her and she jumped out of range. The fire went at a fifteenth Megatank. It forced that poor 'Tank right off the face of Lyoko into the digital sea.

_Just like my visions,_ Cassidy mused. _Only with a hint of Ulrich. _She chuckled at that. She paid close attention though as a seventeenth 'Tank came in. "You never give up, XANA," she muttered in a chuckle as she shot her tenth round at it.

**-Elevator-**

Yumi pressed a button on the elevator. Then she and Odd both noticed the nurse clambering out of the busted ambulance.

She tossed a hubcap at the teens. They dodged it. They got into the elevator just in time and the door closed. XANA-Murphy punched a hole in the elevator door but that didn't stop the two Lyoko Warriors and Sissi from going down to the Lab.

Odd looked to Yumi. "Whew."

**-Lyoko; let's see how Cassidy's doing-**

Cassidy shot her twelfth round at the twentieth Megatank. _Jeepers, you are laying them on. But I like cracking them _like eggs._ Get ready, XANA, because I'm never giving up._

She was destroying Megatank after Megatank. _If Ulrich could see me now._

Bayonet, rifle, redneck gun. She was ready for it all using whatever she could.

"_Cassidy?"_

"I'm fine, Jeremie," Cassidy smiled. "These monsters are a piece of cake."

She shot hard at the twenty-third Megatank.

The monsters were not gaining ground as Cassidy was a real tough person when it came to Lyoko monsters.

**-Elevator-**

The nurse jumped on the elevator and Yumi and Odd looked up. She turned to Odd. "Quick!"

The elevator opened up and Odd and Sissi walked out. Jeremie was about to get out of his seat when he heard Cassidy's voice. _"Get Odd to Lyoko, Jeremie. He needs to help Ulrich and Aelita in the Ice Sector."_

He did so and said to Sissi, "Ah, finally." He got out of his seat.

Yumi went up. Jeremie asked, "What are you doing, Yumi?"

"I'm buying time," Yumi said as the doors closed.

He turned to Sissi. "Sissi, I believe that-that—HEY!"

"_Now what's the matter with Sissi?"_ Odd asked from the Ice Sector.

"She's typing, but I won't stop her," Jeremie told Odd. He monitored the Lyoko Warriors standing beside Sissi.

Sissi typed codes up on the computer screen.

"Cassidy, what's your status?" Jeremie asked.

"_If you ask, me, it is as good as, well, good can be. Shooting Megatanks feels like a second nature,"_ Cassidy told Jeremie.

"Thank goodness you have that tube, Cassidy," Jeremie smiled.

"_Well, I nearly lost hope when I saw no weapon for the first time,"_ Cassidy said.

**-Ice Sector-**

Aelita, Ulrich, and now Odd were getting to the tower. Ulrich looked to find Odd on his OverBoard. "Odd, when did you get in?" he asked.

"Jeremie sent me to Lyoko first, then let Sissi type," Odd said.

"And Cassidy?" Ulrich dreaded the worst.

"_She's doing really well, Ulrich. She's slain over twenty Megatanks,"_ Jeremie sounded proud.

"WHAT?**!**" Ulrich sounded appalled. "She couldn't have managed that many without _some_ life point loss."

"_She still has one hundred life points, Ulrich."_ Ulrich was amazed. _"Wait a second. Over THIRTY now!"_

"She's Queen of the Megatanks!" Odd cheered. "Good on her, Jeremie."

"_She's defending the white tower easily,"_ Jeremie said. _"And she's _solo."

"I know I'm going to regret this tomorrow morning," Ulrich sighed.

"Why?" Odd asked him.

"I called her nuts and underestimated her."

"Like the time you thought that my name wasn't one?" Odd remembered.

"That time, I didn't _know_ her as well as now," Ulrich answered.

"_Well, it goes to show,"_ Jeremie told the two boys.

"I'm proud of her, Jeremie," Aelita beamed.

"We all are," Ulrich reminded her.

A Krabe fired at Ulrich, but it missed him by mere centimeters. _"Ulrich, look out!"_

**-With the XANA-nurse and Yumi-**

XANA-Murphy opened up the top elevator door and jumped inside. Yumi was already at the entrance when she did. She backed up and got grabbed.

**-Ice Sector-**

The chase was on. Two more Krabes joined the first and it was an all out fight. Ulrich stopped his vehicle, jumped on the first one and stabbed it in the eye.

Odd got into far range and shot three arrows at the second one.

There was one more Krabe to go.

**-Forest sector-**

Cassidy was doing fine. She dealt with the 'Tanks like it was no big deal. _Protect the tower, protect the tower. Protect the tower. Franz Hopper needs it to keep connected. Keep protecting the tower. You still have one hundred life points. Keep going._

She shot at the thirty-eighth 'Tank. "You ain't going to bring me down, XANA."

Her tube was not out of ammo yet. She kept going.

**-Elevator; the score is…?-**

Yumi was about to get hit, but she kneed XANA-Murphy in the stomach. She started to run from XANA-Murphy.

**-Forest Sector-**

Just then, the same sensation she had before came on her again. **(A/N: Check the Code: Earth Chapter)**

_You can do it Cassidy,_ A voice told her, and she inwardly nodded. _Let me help you._

She put a hand in front of the fortieth Megatank. "Stop! Leave here. NOW!" She sounded normal but her voice had a small growl to it.

The 'Tank started to move strangely backwards into a tree and exploded. Another Megatank came and took its brethren's place. Cassidy moved in front of it. "Leave this. Tower alone. NOW!"

It too backed up and exploded as it hit a tree.

"_Cassidy?__**!**__"_ Jeremie sounded worried.

"Just worry about Sissi, Jeremie," Cassidy said. "I'm doing fine on my own."

**-Ice Sector-**

"_Guys, we have a problem!"_ Jeremie warned his friends.

"Did Cassidy get devirtualized by a Megatank?" Ulrich asked his voice half-expectant.

"_No, she's acting strange and saying things in one- or two-word sentences. She sounded normal when I called her, but when she talked to the Megatanks…"_

"It's like the time before Aelita was materialized the first time," Ulrich realized.

"She did the same thing," Odd was shocked.

"No one's possessed her," Ulrich said. "Her eyes were normal."

"_Deactivate that tower, QUICK, and get back to Cassidy!"_ Jeremie told them.

**-Forest Sector-**

Cassidy drove off five Megatanks with her voice. _Don't give up, Cassidy. You can still do it._

She inwardly nodded.

**-With Yumi-**

She ran until the nurse caught her by her ankles and she landed on her hands. She rolled over and Murphy pounced on her and tried to punch her two times, but Yumi dodged.

**-Ice Sector-**

Ulrich let Aelita off and she ran to the activated tower to deactivate it.

He took off to take care of another Krabe. But it was too late. The monster hit him twice and he devirtualized.

Odd took another hit. _"Odd, watch it, you just lost eighty life points. One more hit and it's game over!"_

He lifted a fist to the air. "Relax, it's all a part of the plan."

Then he avoided two lasers from two more Krabes. They were firing at the comedian while he was waiting for Aelita to deactivate the tower.

_I would like to know how Cassidy's doing. Sounds like she's been having fun._

**-Let's see, Odd-**

Cassidy was not back from her sensation. She was making Megatanks roll backwards from her with her words.

Thirty minutes later, Odd and Aelita came in from his OverBoard. **(A/N: Aelita has deactivated the tower and Yumi and Ulrich are okay)**

Inwardly, the psychic was thinking, _XANA should have sent in Kankrelats, because they are unpredictable._

The duo came to a halt next to her. "How many Megatanks has she been defeating since this began?" Aelita asked, concerned.

"_Over 80. What a record!"_ Jeremie was amazed.

Odd hooted in raucous, joyous zeal. "I wouldn't be able to beat _that!_"

Cassidy lost the sensation then. She looked to her right. "Odd, what happened to Ulrich?"

"One word: Krabe!" Odd told her.

"The tower…?"

"Deactivated," Aelita said.

A laser blast came in between the duo and psychic, cutting the tower connection.

"NO!" Cassidy cried. "SISSI and the tower…"

She roared into the sky and shot that last Megatank.

Jeremie cleared his throat. _"Cassidy, you have managed a record eighty-seven Megatanks."_

"I wasn't even planning to count them all," Cassidy was in a little anguish, but the record cheered her up some.

"_Great job, Aelita and Cassidy!"_

**-The next day-**

Jeremie rushed to his room. He wanted to show the gang something. He saw Sissi open the door. "Huh, everything okay, Sissi?" He asked her.

She was angry. "How do you expect everything to be okay when I am surrounded by big, fat losers?**!**"

She left the room and Jeremie entered his room at last. Cassidy was really offended with Sissi's rhetorical question. "WE ARE NOT FAT!" she yelled.

"Did I miss something?" Jeremie asked.

Everyone except Jeremie laughed. He was wondering. "Come on! Tell me."

"Yes, Odd just offered Sissi a role in his next film," Ulrich smiled.

"It's the story of a girl driven by a mysterious being who tries to make contact with humans all of which takes place in a virtual universe full of danger," Odd explained.

"What did she say?" Jeremie cocked a brow, smiling.

Aelita was giggling a little. "That no one would ever believe such a ridiculous story."

The genius started laughing. "Ya don't say!"

Yumi came in. "How about you? How's it going?"

"Finished!" Jeremie smiled. "The computer deciphered all of the lines of code that Sissi spoke while she was spellbound."

"The lines that she said forwards-like when I grabbed her by mistake?" Cassidy cocked her head to one side.

Odd was curious. "So? What's it say? Let's hear it."

"Tons of interesting stuff. And a whole lot of elements that are going to help me find a breaker/antivirus for Aelita," he pointed to the CD case in his hand.

"And…? Do you _know_ who this mysterious entity who wants to get into contact with us is?" Ulrich asked him.

"Well take a look," Jeremie told Ulrich.

Cassidy was in ecstasies. "Get ready to eat your hat, Ulrich."

"Get ready to eat yours," he shot back playfully.

Jeremie went over to his computer, put the disk in the disc drive, and pressed a few keys. "I warn you. This is completely _crazy._"

The audio opened up. At first it sounded like Sissi speaking backwards again, but now the man's voice was distorting and clearing at different intervals. Everyone was on edge. "I can help you. I want to enter into contact with you now."

Odd was amazed. "Wow, I can't believe it."

"I am Franz Hopper." The recording repeated that last line over and over again.

"I am Franz Hopper," Aelita repeated.

Cassidy turned to Ulrich. He turned to her too. "I can't believe this. Beaten by one of my best friends," he growled.

**-That afternoon-**

Ulrich was in the courtyard with a megaphone, a forced, happy smile, and an Eddie Money theme playing. He couldn't believe his luck. "Yumi, I…"

He turned away from the megaphone to his supervisor. "Cassidy, do I have to?" he whined.

"You lost the bet. Now you have to pay the price." She had her arms crossed against her chest.

He gave her a look that said, "I hate you," and turned back to Yumi. "Yumi, I—I love you!"

That made Odd whistle in joy. Sissi was outraged. "WHAT?**!**"

Yumi blushed.


	29. This is a shocking Revelation

**Well we'll have a Revelation here. Don't own Code Lyoko. Do own Cassidy. Nothing more or less.**

**-Sector 5-**

Everyone was defending themselves for Aelita's sake. Cassidy was careful on the platform. She held a big record from the adventure two nights ago, but she didn't take bragging rights. Most of the group (Minus, Ulrich, Jeremie, and Aelita) found it a little weird.

She shot at a Manta and it combusted. Yumi threw her fan and it hit another. "Good shot, Yumi," Cassidy complimented.

"Not as much as your record," Yumi smiled.

"I'd rather not take bragging rights, Yumi. I'm not a braggart," Cassidy winked.

She caught her fan. "I've got a bad feeling about this. Are you almost done, Aelita?"

"Yes, almost," Aelita answered, keeping her eyes on the interface as she was working on it.

Another Manta came and shot at the five Lyoko Warriors. They didn't devirtualize just yet. It almost dive-bombed Ulrich, but he ducked as it came. Odd tried a laser arrow, but it missed by mere microns. Ulrich used his sword to cut the underbelly of the fish-like beast. It whined and moaned and as it went upside-down to dive-bomb Odd, he ducked and shot an arrow right on its XANA-eye target.

It combusted out of harm's way of the Lyoko Warriors.

Another one shot Ulrich in the thigh. "Whoa!" he cried out.

"Another Manta nest hatched, guys," Cassidy warned. She shot at one, and it disintegrated.

Aelita paused in her work to look for the other two. She then went back to work. "Done. The controls are all yours, Jeremie," she told him.

She sent the data to him via a send link.

**-Lab-**

Jeremie pressed a key and pushed up his glasses. "Great, here come your vehicles," he told the others.

**-Sector 5-**

The three air-based vehicles came in a snap. Cassidy went on Ulrich's OverBike after he got on. Odd flipped over and got on his OverBoard. Yumi got on hers and drove around to the front of the platform so Aelita could get on.

**-Lab-**

Jeremie opened up a tunnel.

**-Sector 5-**

"_Okay, guys, the passage is open,"_ he told the five.

"Let's get out of here so we can be there when Jeremie gives the news," Cassidy declared.

Everyone eagerly agreed.

They beat it out of there just in time.

**-Later-**

Jeremie typed and typed on the data, leaving Aelita and Co., minus Cassidy, on the edges of insanity.

"So? Anything good?" Aelita asked.

"No, I wouldn't call it good," Jeremie sounded grim, causing Aelita to cock a brow.

"It's amazing, right?" Cassidy kept herself entertained by hopping on one leg.

There was a strong silence. Then Jeremie smiled. "YEP!" he yelled ecstatically.

Aelita smiled with a slight hint of inquisition.

"With this, I bet I can crack the code of Franz Hopper's diary!" Jeremie was confident.

"Secrets will be revealed, and I can FINALLY say what I wanted to say to you two days ago before Ulrich interrupted me," Cassidy grinned.

"Way cool," Ulrich looked at the screen with a tired-looking smile.

"The only problem is I'm going to need a supercomputer to process a large amount of data," Aelita felt a little skeptical. "I'll have to activate a tower or two."

"XANA hates it when we play with his towers," Cassidy frowned.

"But we haven't tried it yet," Jeremie protested. "We don't have a choice."

The psychic sighed. _So many secrets to be revealed. So little time to do so. Godspeed for luck._

"Right, can we go eat now?" Odd wasn't aware that Cassidy had a red yarn ball in her hand and planned to throw it. "It's mashed potatoes today!" He had the look of a hopeful maniac.

Cassidy cocked her arm and threw hard, but the blow was soft.

Odd glared at her but grinned when he realized what she threw was harmless.

"You can have mine. I better stay here to prepare the mission." Jeremie went back to typing. "That way, you can set out right after lunch."

**-Lunch-**

Cassidy, Odd, Ulrich, and Aelita grabbed their trays and walked through the lunch line to the potatoes. When Odd was laid his portion, this exchange took place:

"Um…Jeremie's not coming. He said I could have his portion, too, Rosa." He had a grin on his face the shape of a thin crescent moon.

Rosa laid on the potatoes. "With everything you put away, I don't understand…"

Cassidy felt her ribs burn with a little fury.

"…how you…"

She clenched hard on her tray.

"…can still be so…"

Her mouth opened just a hair.

"…scrawny."

Cassidy couldn't take it any longer. She and Odd said:

"I am not scrawny, I'm svelte!"

"He is not scrawny, he's esbelto!"

Odd split his arms apart.

Cassidy gave him a small noogie.

When they got to their table, Odd said to Ulrich, "So come on, Ulrich. Stop bugging out on us. What's your overall average?"

"76 for the term," Ulrich said grumpily as if a 76 was bad.

"Well, me? I have 78," Odd took a mouthful of potatoes. "I beatcha."

"Only because you made up some points in art and math class," Ulrich shot.

"Not so fast, Odd and Ulrich! Jeremie's still in first place with 99.89% GPA," Cassidy chuckled.

"Yeah? How about you?" Odd cocked a grin.

She swore that she saw some potatoes leaking out of his teeth, but she ignored it. "89.2; third place tie with Yumi," Cassidy smiled.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! How did you know what Yumi—?" Ulrich tried for words.

"We had that GNO thing. She told me while I taught Spanish/Knitting to both her and Aelita and they each taught me Japanese Culture/Computer Programming. We went in shifts," she explained.

Ulrich face-palmed. "Of course, the GNO! How stupid of me to forget!"

"Oh, don't be estúpido, Ulrich. Forgetting is nothing to be ashamed about!" Cassidy patted her friend on the back.

"Estúpido means stupid, right?"

She nodded. "Yep."

He turned to Aelita. "What about you, Aelita? What's your grade point average?"

"95.2," Aelita said after a drink of water.

Odd dropped his fork while Ulrich's mouth dropped open. They were shocked. Cassidy, however, smiled. She knew this would happen. And she knew exactly where it would happen.

Looking at the two boys, Aelita modestly said, "But it's all because of math."

Cassidy put in her ear buds and drowned out the rest of the conversation which went:

Ulrich: "Yes, but still. You must've gotten good grades in all your classes. That's great, especially since—" (mmph)

Cassidy covered his mouth and whispered in his ear, "ix-nay on the ot-nay even uman-hay!"

Ulrich put out one of the ear buds, pulled his mouth free, and whispered in the free ear, "Orry-say!"

Cassidy smiled. "Good."

But Aelita understood what her friends were Pig Latin-ing about. "Don't worry. I know very well that I'm not really human."

The psychic pulled the other ear bud out of the other ear and glared at Ulrich crossly with a look that said "The jig is up, the news is out, and it's _all your fault_!" **(A/N: Thank the Styx song Renegade!)**

Ulrich flinched uncomfortably under Cassidy's hostile gaze.

"Still, sometimes I get a strange feeling as if... as if I've already lived here. Weird, huh?" Aelita raised a brow curiously.

"Ah that's just the magical 'Odd effect.' Ya know? You see me once, and you feel you've known me forever," Odd lifted his fork after another bite of potatoes.

Cassidy nodded. She too fell under this "Odd effect".

"Hey, Magic Odd Effect, y'know you've got some mashed potatoes right on your face," Ulrich pointed to his own face, causing Odd to cross his eyes in a strangely funny way.

Aelita and Cassidy burst into laughter.

**-After Lunch-**

Odd's phone rang and he picked it up. "No way!"

Cassidy's stomach twisted. _This couldn't be good._ "It's a trap, Odd. XANA is up to it."

"A…trap?" Aelita asked with her eyebrows raised.

"I know a trap when I see one, especially if it is in the future," the bespectacled girl shook with fright. "This feels like the 'incident'!"

The 'incident' was when a valiant sacrifice was made to save another Lyoko Warrior.

Cassidy was in a bad shock and had made _loads_ of calls to Yumi over two weeks for a sleepover/therapy session.

Yumi and the others weren't in the least annoyed. It was a real bad case of shock. There were nightmares about the event and a fear of Lyoko that got over in a week. Cassidy pulled through thanks to Aelita's help.

_Call me, beep me, if you wanna reach me._

Cassidy's phone rang. She picked it up and read quietly to herself:

You are too smart. Why don't you and Odd switch places

Take his place while he goes to Lyoko.

Have fun.

X

She smirked as she loved that. She texted back:

Deal. Just leave Odd and Ulrich alone.

She sent the text and turned to Ulrich. "Sorry. I've got a mission to do."

Ulrich shrugged. "Good luck!"

"And if you and another you get into a fight, stab him through the stomach."

Ulrich looked utterly confused as the psychic ran off. Aelita laughed at the look on his face.

**-Lab-**

Jeremie was working on the mission, preparing the necessary codes and configurations when all of a sudden, **activated tower.**

"Ugh, an activated tower. Oh, boy that's all I needed," Jeremie groaned. He typed on the communications program.

**-Courtyard-**

Ulrich, Odd, and Aelita were playing 90 Second Alphabet when Ulrich's phone rang. He picked it up.

"Yeah, Jeremie?" Aelita turned her head. "Huh? Okay, we're on our way!"

He hung up with his friend and said, "Activated tower. Aelita, you call Yumi. I'll text Cassidy."

Aelita whipped out her cell phone and dialed.

**-With Cassidy-**

She rushed to the red path. When she stopped there, she said into the air, "Okay, XANA! I'm ready for you. Throw me in that hole! I don't care." She was solidly determined to make the next ultimate sacrifice. Odd would go to Lyoko, and she would risk drowning.

_Win-win,_ she thought.

Her phone rang. _SOS, XANA,_ she figured.

"Ya hear me, XANA? I said I'm ready!"

The specter came and Cassidy brace herself for unconsciousness.

_I know what I'm doing._

The girl didn't scream out. It was as if she didn't want to.

**-Lab-**

Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita came from the elevator. Jeremie looked for the fifth member, but she wasn't there. "Where's Cassidy?"

"I sent her a text message. She said that she had some sort of mission and left." Ulrich took the lead as he walked to the console chair.

"Will she be alright?" Jeremie asked worriedly.

"Who knows?" Yumi said.

"Missions can last for a long time," Ulrich said, and Odd, Yumi, and Aelita nodded.

"I hope it doesn't last much longer. Not only do we have to decode Franz Hopper's notes, but now we have to deactivate the tower as well." Jeremie was getting increasingly panicky.

Yumi and the other three were in the elevator. "Okay let's go," Yumi said.

He looked to the elevator and saw his sweetheart give him a little wave.

Jeremie tried to call Cassidy's number but it was useless.

"Come on, Cassidy, pick up!"

**-Red Path-**

Her purple Motorola was ringing, but no one was around to pick it up. It still made a sound.

**-Lab-**

"She's not answering," Jeremie said. "Forget it for now."

**-Scanner Room-**

"_She'll meet you later,"_ he told the group.

Soon the four were on Lyoko.

**-In the Mountain Region-**

The four walked to make a rectangular formation, waiting for the fifth Lyoko Warrior.

**-Back to the Scanner Room-**

The elevator opened up to reveal Cassidy, but something was not right about her. "I'm here, Jeremie," she said in a deep calm.

"_Not a minute too soon. I've been trying your number,"_ Jeremie was still typing on a few programs.

"I was…ocupada," she stepped into the scanner. "Soy lista, Jeremie."

"_I'll launch the procedure."_

Jeremie sent the girl on to Lyoko, but saw a red (!) on her window.

**-Lyoko-**

"_Cassidy?__**!**__"_ Jeremie called out to her.

"I'm on Lyoko, Jeremie. Don't fret," Cassidy replied coolly. She sounded too calm.

"_There was a bug during the transfer! Oh, no way!"_ Jeremie cried. _"The tower just deactivated itself."_

"Are you sure?" Ulrich asked.

"_Yeah! The super-scan shows all clear,"_ Jeremie told the gang.

Cassidy had a little bit of an angry look on her face as if she was insulted.

"_As if XANA has called off his attack,"_ he continued.

"Well that's one less thing to worry about, right?" Ulrich asked.

"Yep. Now we can decode Franz's notes," Odd smiled.

"Right, Cassidy?" Ulrich said.

"Right," Cassidy turned around to face the group. Ulrich took one look on her face and asked the others, "What's up with her? Is she sulking or something?"

"Maybe her mission failed," Aelita suggested.

Odd tried to make Cassidy laugh, but she had a downcast look as if he was telling her that her cooking stunk.

Jeremie brought up the vehicles._ "Here are your rides. Please remember that we have a diary to decode."_

Cassidy coolly went to her vehicle and laid herself in. Aelita went with Yumi. Ulrich and Odd went to their own vehicles.

"_I've chosen the tower at seventy-two degrees south and fifty-five degrees west,"_ Jeremie told the group.

Everyone went with the coordinates and Yumi found the tower. "There it is!" She pointed ahead of her, and then put her arm back on the bar.

For the moment, the tower was blue, but it was soon to turn into a green in a few minutes. Aelita went inside the tower, rose to the top platform, and formed up the communication program so she could keep in touch with Jeremie.

"_As soon as I activate the tower,"_ Jeremie instructed her, _"start the decoding process."_

She posed to start. "I'm ready, Jeremie."

"_Okay, I'm activating the tower, NOW!"_

**-Outside the tower-**

Some fog had surrounded the Lyoko warriors. The tower was now green. Aelita was free to work on the decoding process as she pleased.

"_YEAH! It's working!"_ came the jubilant cry of the genius.

**-Inside the tower-**

"Decoding the diary is underway, Jeremie," Aelita informed her excited knight in glasses, "but it might take some time."

"_No problem. Whenever XANA leaves us in peace, everything's cool!"_ Jeremie sounded a little laid-back.

**-Outside the tower-**

Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich took fighting stances while Cassidy stood behind, almost stiff as a board.

**-Lab-**

Jeremie noticed six red dots on the screen. He knew what those five were. "Uh-oh, I spoke too soon."

**-Lyoko, outside the tower-**

"_Watch out, XANA's creatures heading your way,"_ Jeremie told the gang.

"Where from? We can't see anything," Yumi told him. Then she saw the Tarantulas.

"Wow! XANA's pulled out the big guns." Ulrich pulled out his sword at the same time as Odd cocked his arm to fight. Cassidy pulled her tube from her tail, turned it into a gun and was about to fight, but suddenly aimed her gun at Yumi. She fired and Yumi was devirtualized in a pile of pixilated dust.

Yumi had also cried out, causing Ulrich to turn his head. Cassidy was now aiming at him, shooting with her gun. "Jeremie, XANA's taken over Cassidy!"

"_What?__**!**__"_ Jeremie asked.

**-Inside-**

Aelita stopped in her work, but the decoding process was still underway as planned.

**-Outside the tower-**

Cassidy was shooting her bullets, but Ulrich used his sword as a shield to block off the rapid fire.

"Yes, I'm sure of it." He didn't lose his focus but was backing up more and more to the Tarantulas' lasers. He noticed, then flipped, and jumped on his OverBike to avoid her. Cassidy got on the OverWing and started the chase. And something told Ulrich this was not just playful chase. He yelled to Odd, "Defend the green tower. If we lose it, then I don't know what will happen."

"Okay, General," Odd was fierce and loyal to his friends. That was one reason why they kept him in the group. Another unrelated reason was that he made good jokes (deemed by Cassidy).

**-In the scanner room-**

Yumi's scanner opened up. She was a little weak, but hit the scanner floor with her fists in anger.

**-Hermitage-**

The real Cassidy woke up in a grate-covered hole to the feel and sound of water. "Huh?" she was a little woozy. Instead of engulfing her in smoke, XANA injected Cassidy with a sedative. "Oye, I'll try to think twice on this one. I'm sure of it."

She stood up, but instantly slumped down. "Stupid sedative." She tried again. This time she held onto the water-slick edges of the grate. It was hard with double vision and farsightedness.

**-Mountain Sector-**

Ulrich was in the chase of his life. XANA-Cassidy was shooting and he was avoiding and blocking off his attacker's ammo.

**-Lab-**

"_I don't know how XANA did it!"_ Ulrich told Jeremie. He looked to see Yumi come out of the elevator and then thought on the subject. He thought back on Cassidy's birthday and remembered a single sentence that came from her.

"_I can sense a polymorphing clone when I see one."_

"I do," Jeremie said. "It's not the real Cassidy."

"What?" Yumi asked.

"It's one of XANA's creatures. A polymorphing specter," Jeremie continued.

"But where's the real Cassidy then?" Yumi asked him.

**-Back at the grate-**

Cassidy held on with her might and started to climb using the feet-and-hands-apart method. _I may be sedated but I can still try to climb to the top._ She thought sluggishly.

"I gotta learn this someday. Why, I, gotta learn the hard way!" she sang a little loopy. "Buddy showed me just how fast a car can go—oh!" It was a long note, but she held it. "I'll race you for your pink slip right before this show—oh." Another long note and she held it good.

She slipped when she was almost at the top and fell back into the water. She tried again.

_I'll call for help when Yumi arrives. No one's around to hear me right now,_ she thought in a daze.

**-Back at Lyoko-**

The Tarantulas were trying to surround the tower, but three of them were hit with laser arrows. Three of them got through.

Ulrich was still being chased by the clone. "Talk about a tailgater! Worse than Sissi!" He protested.

Odd was trying his best to get rid of the three Tarantulas so the decoding process would work.

"_Ulrich, Odd, it's a trap," _Jeremie told the two boys. _"She's trying to lead you two away from the tower."_

"Talk about acting shy then giving an aggressive chase," Odd quipped.

"But why?" Ulrich asked.

He avoided another bullet.

**-Inside the tower-**

"Jeremie?" Aelita **(A/N: FINALLY. She takes another line. End A/N)** paused in her work. "What's going on?"

**-Lab-**

"_Is there a problem?"_ she asked him.

"Aw, man," Jeremie said. "XANA's trying to gain control of the tower. Abort the mission. Stop decoding…"

**-Back inside the tower-**

"…_and get back to Earth!"_ Jeremie ordered.

"Okay," Aelita knew what she had to do. She worked on trying to abort the mission.

**-Back to the Lab-**

"Yumi, where are you?"

**-Woods-**

"In the woods," Yumi ran through the forest trying to find Cassidy, "But it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack."

**-Back at the Lab-**

Jeremie used his find-cell-phone program to find Cassidy's phone.

"Wait. While I was hacking into the network, I managed to find the emergency telephone that is closest to Cassidy's phone!" Jeremie told her.

"_You can do that?"_ Yumi asked the genius.

"Of course I can! If Cassidy still has her cell on her, then she's in the northeast corner…"

**-Woods-**

"…_of the woods,"_ Jeremie said.

Yumi understood. "That's near the Hermitage. I'm off."

She hung up with him and ran off.

**-Mountain Sector-**

Red pulses were pumped in from the wire connecting the tower. Odd was trying to hold the three Tarantulas off.

**-Inside the tower-**

"Jeremie, we've got a problem. I can't stop the decoding program."

**-Lab-**

"_It's taking up too many resources. It's out of my control, now,"_ Aelita told Jeremie.

He hit his fist on the arm of the chair.

"Bad news. If XANA manages to get control of the tower now, he'll be able to get into the restricted-access part of the supercomputer. I can lose all the data in Franz Hopper's diary!" he lamented.

"_Not to mention everything you programmed in yourself: Our combat gear, the vehicles, the transfer codes, and my materialization program!"_ Aelita listed, making Jeremie feel hundreds and hundreds of times worse.

"This is a nightmare!" Jeremie sounded like he was ready to quit. "ULRICH, ODD!"

**-Back to the outside of the tower-**

"_XANA's about to take control of the tower. You two have to stop it."_ Ulrich blocked another six bullets with his katana.

"Uh, right, okay, but how?" Ulrich sounded ready to give up.

"_You'll have to isolate the towers," _Jeremie instructed. _"Try to cut the cables. Hurry!"_

Ulrich then jackknifed back to the tower. Odd tried to get rid of the unwanted guests. He aimed a laser arrow at one of the wires. It cut it just a slight bit.

The Tarantulas found a newer target to play with: Ulrich. They started shooting and he started blocking with his katana as he flew down.

He got rid of one by slamming his OverBike into it. He brought down the second one by stabbing the eye with his sword. Odd was impressed. "Good job, good buddy."

"'Job ain't over yet!" Ulrich yelled to Odd. He ran over to the wire and was about to cut it when a bullet hit him in the shoulder. He saw the XANA-clone of Cassidy.

"You're wasting your time XANA. Odd, Yumi, and Cassidy have never beaten me yet!" he hoped the lie would work. Cassidy had beaten Ulrich in a bet.

The Polymorphing clone turned into a darker double. Ulrich started to falter, "Uh... yeah… well, okay. Uh… that changes things."

The Dark Ulrich **(A/N: that'll be known as TDU (Not to be messed up as another Total Drama thing). End A/N)** came up and clashed swords with the other Ulrich. TDU had a red sword.

**-Cassidy's problem-**

She had gotten up to the top of the hole, but now she faced a bigger problem. How to push the grate without a base under a big sedation. That seemed to be the problem.

But she wouldn't call for help just yet.

**-Yumi-**

She got to the corner and tried Cassidy's phone. It rang, alerting Yumi to the sound, but when she got there, the girl was nowhere to be seen.

Yumi looked around. "Cassidy? Cassidy!" she ran in the right direction. Cassidy would be at the Hermitage. But then she saw another thing. A hypodermic needle. With instructions on how to administer the sedative.

That worried the Japanese girl even further. And she kept on running.

**-Back at the tower-**

It was turning a dark red. If Ulrich and Odd didn't hurry soon, they would lose everything.

**-Lab-**

"XANA's going to do it, Aelita," Jeremie urged. "Is there anything new?"

**-Lyoko-**

"There's no way to stop the process. Everything's buggy!" Aelita was feeling despondent.

**-Ulrich vs. TDU and Odd vs. the last Tarantula-**

Ulrich and TDU were clashing swords. The last Tarantula tried to shoot the good Ulrich, but they decided to "take it outside" so to speak, clashing swords along the way.

Then they matched step and jumped up in the air, katana hitting katana, until they hit the ground and took it to the "Ring of Wires".

They hit katanas, and went to the sides of the "ring". They bounced off the wires and clashed swords twice before going off on the purple rock/silver wire. **(A/N: I love this battle royal)**

They clashed once after they bounced off.

**-Hermitage-**

Cassidy tried to push without a base, refusing to cry for help.

_You can do it,_ she pushed herself. She nodded, _I can. I can. I can._

**-Back at the Mountain Sector (Ulrich vs. TDU)-**

They landed on either side of the "ring". TDU held his sword in front of his face. Ulrich looked onward then held his sword in front of his face too. They moved toward each other, clashed swords, fought with Pencak Silat, and TDU backed off a bit.

But he wasn't done.

Ulrich was impressed. "Hey, you're not so bad there, XANA!"

TDU charged and they clashed swords. "Whoa, uh, full of surprises, huh?"

He then tried to knock him off his feet, but TDU jumped and used his sword to grab the Good Ulrich's sword. That left Ulrich weaponless.

"Hey, no fair!" Ulrich protested.

**-Odd vs. the last Tarantula-**

He was having a hard time with the last one.

**-Cassidy's situation-**

She fell back into the water, thoroughly exhausted. "Yumi's going to arrive soon," she said as she reached the surface again. That sedative really did its work.

"I'm really going to have to take a nap for this adventure," she growled a little.

**-Yumi-**

Yumi ran over to the path, turned around, and saw the Hermitage.

She rushed in that direction.

**-Back to Lyoko's tower-**

It was switching from green to red like a traffic light.

**-With Jeremie-**

"XANA's about to take over. Ulrich, Odd, what are you two doing?" Jeremie asked the two boys.

**-Ulrich's answer-**

"I've just got this last little thing to—to take care of," He said, dodging the two katanas.

**-Odd's answer-**

"If this Tarantula would be nice and hold still so I could kill it, I might have this problem under control," Odd yelled.

**-Ulrich-**

He dodged the swords but he didn't dodge TDU's foot. He was on his back immediately. Cassidy's words floated into the battlefield. _If you and the clone are now in the fight, stab him through THE STOMACH._

_You know, Cassidy, that just might work,_ Ulrich smiled.

He got back up on his feet hopped around a bit then made the "come on with your come on" gesture, and then he hopped a bit more on his feet.

TDU charged and Ulrich grabbed the sword from his hand and stabbed TDU, just like Cassidy told him, in the stomach area. The clone was finally defeated.

He beat feet back to the wire and Odd was on it too. They got some of the cable cut before the last Tarantula devirtualized them both.

"_ULRICH, ODD!"_ Jeremie yelled.

**-Yumi-**

Yumi made her way to the Hermitage's gates. Then started looking around for their lost comrade. "Cassidy?"

**-Cassidy-**

She heard Yumi's voice. "YUMI! YUMI!" she screeched, though it was draining. "YUMI!"

**-Yumi-**

"Cassidy!" She heard Cassidy's screeches. It was a desperate sign for help.

She rushed to turn off the water and found where her friend was held captive.

She started pulling at the same time as Cassidy tried pushing. The latter girl was starting to weaken.

"CASSIDY!"

**-The tower-**

It was starting to look like XANA would win.

**-Lab-**

The elevator opened up to reveal Odd and Ulrich with despondent looks on their faces.

Jeremie was now losing hope. "XANA is about to steal all my data! We're done for!"

**-Inside the tower-**

Aelita noticed something. "Hey!" she half-whispered.

**-Outside-**

The tower turned an opal-like white. And the Tarantula started to look at the tower.

**-Lab-**

"What's going on?" Jeremie asked. "Aelita?"

"_I don't get it! It looks like XANA lost control of the tower!"_ Aelita said.

"Franz Hopper!" Jeremie said out loud.

**-Inside the tower-**

"_Franz Hopper's helping us! What's going on, on your side?"_ he asked excitedly.

"The decoding program is going full speed!" Aelita was watching with amazement in her eyes.

**-Lab-**

A light on the computer shone brightly at the three boys and Franz's diary was being decoded.

The binary code used to encrypt the diary had been cracked and a screen of blue paper icons appeared and turned white.

**-Cassidy and Yumi-**

She was holding her breath while Yumi successfully opened the grate. She pulled the psychic out.

"I'd say near-drowning is in my book now!" Cassidy muttered as a joke. The two girls got a big laugh out of that one.

**-Lab-**

The bright light dimmed and Odd, Ulrich, and Jeremie looked at the screen in confusion, but not shock.

**-Lyoko-**

The tower turned blue and the Tarantula clunked away (probably fed up).

**-Inside the tower-**

Aelita looked at the interface. "Amazing."

**-Lab-**

Yumi came on the phone. Jeremie said, "Yumi."

**-Cassidy and Yumi-**

Cassidy was squeezing out her hair a little. Yumi was on the phone, "I got Cassidy."

The aforementioned girl then leaned on the rock Yumi was sitting on, tired.

Yumi didn't mind it. "How about you?"

**-Jeremie, Odd, and Ulrich-**

"We're decoding Franz Hopper's diary," Jeremie said.

Franz Hopper's diary opened up.

**-The next day in Jeremie's room-**

Both Jeremie and Cassidy were given the spotlight.

"Franz Hopper was the creator of Lyoko and XANA," Cassidy started in first.

"In his diary, he wrote down everything that happened during the creation of Lyoko. Everything," Jeremie was sitting in his chair.

"That means that you'll be able to find the antivirus," Aelita perked up.

"We're not finished, Aelita. And what we'll say at the end may change the way you think," Cassidy looked a little tactful, but rubbed her shoulder. It was still sore from the day before.

The pink-haired girl nodded.

"There is something more," Jeremie turned to his computer screen, as if it would be his helper.

Ulrich was curious. "What? Come on! Spit it out," he pushed the two.

"He had a wife," Cassidy sounded despondent.

"We already know that. You told us the day at the train station," Yumi said.

"Before he virtualized himself on Lyoko, and before he became this 'prisoner' of XANA, he lived as a human on Earth," Cassidy sighed.

"We already knew that, too!" Yumi said.

"Yes," Jeremie pointed a finger at Yumi as if it would tell her to pay attention, "but, what we didn't know was that he had a child."

"A beautiful little girl," Cassidy nodded.

Aelita cocked a brow.

Odd sounded interested. "Really, well, what did she look like?"

Cassidy came over to Odd and whispered something that wasn't a threat, but an answer.

Odd quieted down, staring at the pink-haired girl, with wide eyes. Cassidy backed to where Jeremie was.

"What became of Ae—I mean her?" he asked.

"He virtualized her on Lyoko at the same time as himself." Cassidy looked down as Jeremie relayed that fact.

"And? Did she fall victim to XANA too?" Yumi wondered.

"No," Cassidy answered. "She—she stayed on Lyoko."

Cassidy and Jeremie were now staring at Aelita. That was the final fact. The final nail in the wood. The entire kit and caboodle.

Aelita gasped. "But that's impossible. If Hopper's daughter were on Lyoko, I would have definitely known. I—"

Everyone was staring at Aelita now, wide-eyed.

Aelita tried to back away from the facts. "I'm—not!"

Jeremie smiled in a way that said "It's true!"

That was the final blow. The only unspoken fact was:

Aelita was _Franz Hopper's daughter._

The pink-haired girl was shocked.


	30. We have the Key, now

**The Key is here. The Key is here.**

**Don't Own Code Lyoko.**

**The Key is here.**

**Own only Cassidy and the plot.**

**-A week later-**

Jeremie and Cassidy were at the supercomputer. The psychic yawned because of a tireless night the night before. "The others will arrive in five seconds," Cassidy yawned again, rubbing her eyes.

The elevator doors opened. "Hi Einstein and Cat-Girl," Odd said from the elevator. "We've been looking everywhere for you two."

"We've spent the whole night reading Franz Hopper's diary," Cassidy yawned.

Yumi walked up to the tired psychic. "You look wiped out," she noted.

"Now I know what Jeremie feels inside doing those all nighters." Cassidy stretched.

Jeremie opened up the video log book. "Listen to this."

He started the video. "June 6, 1994, day 67: Project Carthage was a military program used to block enemy communications." The video paused as Jeremie said, "Wait, it's further down."

He fast-forwarded the video to: "…so I built the supercomputer, created Lyoko, and last of all_ XANA_ to destroy Carthage."

Franz had a cup of (assumedly) coffee on the left arm of the cushy chair and Jeremie fast-forwarded the video again. This time the former-science teacher grabbed the cup. "June 6, 1994, day 639…" Jeremie fast-forwarded the video again.

"It's still further," he informed the gang.

The coffee cup was no longer with Franz and he was now leaning toward the camera with his hand on his head as if he had a migraine. "June 6, 1994, day 1265: Someone's watching me! Someone wants to get rid of me!" He banged a fist on the right arm of the chair.

Everyone was watching with rapt attention as Jeremie fast-forwarded the tape. "I wanted to _destroy_ the supercomputer and destroy all the evidence of my activities!" Franz was now adjusting the camera with the hand that was once on his head. He stopped then. "That's when I discovered one of its fascinating properties—returning to the past. It gave me all the time I could possibly need to perfect my great project. The only thing that allowed me to escape my enemies."

Jeremie fast-forwarded the video once more. "June 6, 1994, day 2546…"

"This is it," Jeremie told the gang.

"The scanners and the virtualization programs are ready! In a few hours, I will go to Lyoko with Aelita. Just like me, Aelita will hold the Keys to Lyoko. Together, we will be the absolute masters. We will live together, _forever._" Franz turned the camera off.

Jeremie turned around in the chair. "The Keys to Lyoko."

"XANA wants them from Aelita's memory," Cassidy nodded.

"But what could XANA do with them?" Ulrich asked.

"Listen to Aelita," Cassidy gestured lightly to her.

"Escape from the supercomputer," Aelita was staring at the screen as if she had seen a ghost on it, "and take over the world."

**-Breakfast-**

Aelita stirred her hot chocolate with a depressed look on her face. "Aelita," Jeremie's tender voice came to her. She looked up with some disdain. Her friends were going to their seats. "You should've stuck around 'til the end!" he sat down next to her. "I didn't have time to tell you the best news of all. It turns out we've been wrong all along."

Ulrich came up with his tray. "You two have? Why?"

"My visions told me that Aelita had a link/virus when we tried shutting down the supercomputer the first time. I told Jeremie, but thanks to a Hermitage trip weeks ago, I understood. It was as if some of my visions were…padlocked. Jeremie had been searching for a breaker/antivirus. Pero me equivoqué. But I was wrong," Cassidy said.

"But thanks to Franz Hopper's diary, I finally understand," Jeremie told his side. "XANA didn't give her anything at all. In fact, he _took_ something from her."

"He did?" Yumi asked. "But what?"

"A memory key of sorts," Cassidy explained, "located in Sector 5."

"We could get it tonight, after the End-of-the-Year Dance," Odd amended, holding his cup of hot chocolate.

Ulrich slammed down his cup. "AWESOME! It'll be our final mission, and then it's time for a well-earned _real_ vacation." He just couldn't wait, Cassidy figured. She sighed. _Oh, if you only knew all of my visions._

"Out of the question!" Aelita stood up, surprising everyone but Cassidy. The pink-haired girl walked swiftly out of the cafeteria.

"Huh." Odd shrugged.

**-Outside-**

Jeremie and Cassidy followed Aelita some. "Aelita, wait!" Jeremie called out. "What's the matter?"

Before Aelita could speak, the psychic spoke. "She's a little depressed, Jeremie."

Then the pink-haired girl said, "I refuse to step foot on Lyoko ever again!"

That shocked Cassidy, and she couldn't form words to help her friend.

"Why?" Jeremie asked in a small hint of worry. "What's gotten into you?"

"My father stole my life from me!"

Now that gave leeway for Cassidy to talk. "Your father did not. He was a little crazy, but still. He saved your life. If not for him, then the Secret Service would've taken him away from you."

But that didn't move Aelita. She continued, "He was a totally crazy, second-rate magician. Because of him, I'm nothing... I'm no one."

"You _are_ someone, Aelita. You are our friend, and nothing can take that away from us. Nothing," Cassidy tried to soothe.

"Besides, all that's behind you, now. We'll recover the fragment that XANA took from you and shut down the supercomputer. Then you'll be free," Jeremie tried to help. He even had a hand on his sweetheart's shoulder.

"What if it goes wrong?" Aelita shrugged his hand and walked a few steps away from the two. She stopped. Then, as she started walking again, she asked, "What if XANA gets hold of the keys to Lyoko in my memory?"

Cassidy sighed. "Jeremie?"

"Yeah?" Jeremie sounded as despondent as the psychic and his sweetheart.

"We have a long road before us," Cassidy hung her head down low. "And it's not going to be easy."

**-With Jim-**

"Right, for all you party animals with short memory spans, I'd like to remind you that, uh... what was I saying? Oh, yeah. During the End-of-the-Year Dance, any overly-suggestive dancing, wild behavior, or trouble-making will be severely punished," Jim said to the students after breakfast was over. Cassidy had joined Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi after the talk with Jeremie, Aelita, and herself. "That's all. Enjoy yourselves."

"So far," Odd seemed down-hearted, "I don't have anyone to take to the dance. Fortunately, I have a way with women."

"Don't try Magali. She told you never to speak to her again," Cassidy told Odd. She turned to Ulrich and Yumi. "Are you two going to the dance with each other?" she hinted.

Those two blushed as if some untold secret had been exposed. Yumi looked at her friend. "Y-yeah!" she stuttered.

"Oh, don't stutter, Yumi. It's okay if you and Ulrich don't feel like going to the dance," Cassidy smiled.

Then an arm grabbed for the psychic and she about fought when she realized it was William. She relaxed and admitted, "Sorry, William. I—had a bad dream last night."

"About…" William sounded interested.

"Some gangster or something grabbing and kidnapping me. It was horrible. I woke up at three o'clock in the morning."

"Oh," he nodded then dragged her off.

A loud, high-pitched voice screeched across the courtyard. Ulrich smiled a bit. "Here comes trouble with a capital S."

"Ulrich," Sissi came up to him. "If you and that crow are going out then I've got news for you: she's nothing, you hear me, _nothing_."

"Says you!" Ulrich smarted.

"At least I have a few more _brain cells_ than you," Yumi commented.

Sissi growled and stomped off.

**-With William and Cassidy-**

"Are you sure you have other plans," William asked.

"Yes," Cassidy said. "I have to recover from that aftermath of a nightmare."

"Do you want me to help?" William asked.

"No, this is a mission I must do for myself," Cassidy said.

**-Super-calculator room-**

Aelita could barely hold her head up. Tears of anger walloped in her eyes as the elevator descended to the lower floor. She hated her father for what he did. Once the elevator stopped, she rushed over to the supercomputer's power switch. Aelita could not take it anymore. In her mind, everything would be better with the supercomputer off. The world would be safe. Her friends would be safe.

And so, without a hint of regret, she turned off the supercomputer, thus making her fall to the ground in a faint.

**-Outside the vending machines-**

Odd was playing Tetris Annihilator on his GameBoy when Jeremie came to him, Ulrich, and Yumi.

"Have you seen Aelita?" Jeremie asked.

"No," Ulrich answered.

"There's no answer on her phone and the supercomputer is not responding, either. Cassidy has locked the door on her dorm room, but she gave me a note saying Aelita's not there," Jeremie gave out his worries.

"Do you think it's a bug?" Odd asked.

"Or some type of error?" Yumi came in.

"Maybe," Jeremie was still worried. "I'll go to the factory. Cover for me for the teachers."

He went off and Yumi cocked a brow. "What do you two think?"

Odd gave an off-topic answer. "Twigs."

Ulrich gave a less harebrained answer. "I think it's a trap, but I'm not sure."

Yumi nodded and then asked Odd, "So, Odd, did you find someone to take to the dance?"

"No," Odd sounded down.

"Hey, Odd, could you do two proverbs for us?" Ulrich asked.

"But you said that they stink," Odd accused.

"I know, but come on! Please?" Ulrich said. "We need some humor here."

"One of them, if Sissi wasn't mad, is: Ulrich has not lost his head, and hasn't lost a thread!"

Laughter ensued.

"Go with Yumi, and your future isn't a hissy 'cause you're gonna lose Sissi," Odd smiled.

**-Lab-**

Jeremie put on the headset and tried the computer. But all that came was a blank. "This isn't right."

He went down to the Super-calculator room to find Aelita on the floor, her life ticking away from her.

"AELITA!" he cried. He saw the switch and turned it back on. He cradled his sweetheart. "Aelita, answer me! Come on! Wake up!"

She opened her eyes with a gasp of air.

Jeremie was worried. "You're insane! Why did you do that?"

"To save the world! To save you all!" Aelita told him.

"We'll save it together. And then you'll have your whole life in front of you, a brand-new life," he told her.

**-Odd and Ulrich's room-**

"You should get ready!" Odd sang to Ulrich. "Yumi's going to be waiting for you."

Ulrich was trying to figure out what to wear. "I know, but I don't know what to wear!"

Matthias and Theo barged in like vagabonds. "You should see Cassidy!"

"Why, Theo?" Ulrich asked.

"Have you heard? William brutally broke up with her!" Matthias told the two.

Ulrich and Odd looked to each other in shock. Then Ulrich turned to look at the two boys. "But they've been dating for months!"

"Not anymore. William thought that Cassidy was unfaithful and told her off. Cassidy tried to defend herself but he hit her with the five words girls _hate to hear_," Matthias said.

"What are they?" Ulrich asked.

"'I'm sorry, but it's over,'" Theo quoted. "She's in front of the admin building."

The two Lyoko Warriors looked to each other again, and then rushed to Cassidy. He called Yumi. "Yumi, meet us near the front of the admin building. We need your help."

A crowd of already-dressed-to-dance girls were surrounding the spot, but Odd and Ulrich managed to get through. A kinda catatonic Cassidy was sitting with wide eyes. Ulrich's phone rang as Yumi got through with Hiroki at her heels. She saw that Cassidy was in shock and gasped.

He picked up his phone. "Yes?"

**-Lab-**

"It's me! You at the dance?" Jeremie asked.

"_No, I don't want to go!"_ Ulrich said.

"Glad to hear it," Jeremie was typing up programs. "Aelita and I aren't going to go either. Come to the factory. It's mission time! Let Odd…,"

**-Back to Ulrich-**

"…_, Yumi, and Cassidy know, too, okay?" _Jeremie came from the other end as Odd helped the stiff-in-shock girl up on her feet.

"We heard," Yumi told Jeremie.

**-A few minutes (and a thawing) later-**

"Mission to find that fragment," Cassidy whispered to herself. She was really excited, despite her break up with William.

("I'll get him back for that later," she told the three.)

"This is the big one guys," Jeremie said, deepening Cassidy's excitement even further. "We're going to recover Aelita's fragment, and get rid of XANA once and for all."

"Let's do this!" Cassidy whooped. "Odd, both you and I will lead the way!"

The two eagerly led the way to the elevator.

"Be careful," Jeremie said.

"I'll try, Jeremie, but in case this mission fails…" Cassidy sighed before saying, "Pray to God and Franz Hopper for luck. Coax the others into praying, too."

Jeremie nodded and sent the five to the Ice Sector. _"Everybody alright?"_ he asked.

"Better than alright," Ulrich said.

"_I'm programming your vehicles too,"_ Jeremie said.

Every vehicle was there in a blink of an eye. _"There you go. The edge of the sector is north, northeast."_

"We'll be done in no time…I hope," Cassidy's virtual heart squeezed in a small bit of fear.

Soon they were on the trail to the end of the sector. _"No monsters?"_

"No sign of Megatanks, Kankrelats, Krabes, Bloks, Tarantulas, Hornets, or Mantas anywhere. It figures: XANA wasn't expecting us," Cassidy sighed.

Aelita nodded.

When they got to the edge, they got off their vehicles and stood by for the Transporter. "Enter the code," Aelita said.

"_Okay, all aboard for Sector 5!"_ Jeremie was ready with the code.

The Transporter took them to Sector 5's Arena. Odd felt his stomach and took a little wonder at it.

"What's wrong with you? Feel like throwing up as usual?" Ulrich cracked.

"No," Odd said. "I don't. That's what I can't understand."

"Maybe you are now used to it, Odd," Cassidy shrugged.

"_Everybody ready? I'm going to enter the coordinates of the room where Aelita's fragment is,"_ Jeremie said.

"Get ready! The wall's about to open," Aelita said.

"Creepers and, I believe, some Mantas are going to hit us this eve. Plus the Schyphozoa, but I think I can handle him," Cassidy reported.

The wall opened up. Yumi lead the way as they went to the Core Zone.

"_You have three minutes to find the key and stop the countdown,"_ Jeremie told them.

"We'll stop that countdown," Cassidy said. She turned to Yumi. "Buena suerte, Yumi. You are going to need it."

"I see it," Yumi pointed.

"Out of reach, as usual," Odd commented.

"The Creepers are due to arrive, now!" The psychic cat's eyes turned into a light velvet brown.

The walls on either side of them opened up and Creepers came out.

"Yumi, go! We'll give this creepy party under control," Cassidy pointed, her eyes still a light shade of brown.

The Creepers started shooting, but Ulrich and Yumi blocked the shots from getting to the three other members.

Cassidy then froze. _Something's about to go wrong! Aelita was right to be worried._

A laser shot almost grazed her, but Ulrich's katana blocked the shot. "Darn it, Cassidy! Get your head in the game. This is no time for spacing out or getting visions."

She shrunk into the crowd. "I'm sorry. I—"

"Save the apologies for later!" Ulrich blocked another shot.

_I'd much rather be back in the arena spacing out, than be here and spacing out._

Odd shot a few laser arrows to one Creeper, then jumped, hit another (disintegrating it), and _waved_ to the last one on the right side. "Hi there, Creepers. Still as ugly as ever, huh?"

The last Creeper fired at Odd, but he dodged, and it followed. He got up on his feet and hit the snake-like creature in the mouth.

Yumi was doing some high-flying acrobatics to get to the key mechanism.

"_Only one more minute to go!"_ Jeremie warned.

The Creepers were now shooting at Cassidy. She grabbed her tube (dodging shots doing so), turned it into a Bloody Rose gun, and fired away.

It did nothing so she tagged Odd. He shot his arrows from his arms, but the Creepers dodged that too.

Odd then tagged Ulrich and with a cry of "Super Sprint", he got rid of the Creepers.

He looked up and said tenderly, "Go for it, Yumi!"

Cassidy smiled. She wasn't in the least disappointed.

Yumi was still going from bar to bar, trying to get to the key mechanism.

Odd, Cassidy, and Ulrich were working their magic, trying to get the Creepers defeated. And Aelita went to go hide somewhere, though there were little spots to hide from in Sector 5.

Odd was then in the crosshairs of two Creepers. He did a handstand, split his legs apart so he was a Y formation, and the lasers hit the two just right.

Yumi was now tight-roping across to the key mechanism. _"Yumi, only eighteen seconds left! Hurry!"_

"I'm almost there," She said, keeping her balance in check.

A Creeper was there and it was mad. She dodged the lasers with ease and went back over when Jeremie started counting down seconds from ten. She used her foot to press the key mechanism and, in a type of scissor-hold, overthrew the Creeper.

They heard Jeremie breathe a sigh of relief. Ulrich complimented, "Nice job."

Aelita came back from her hiding place.

Just then the floor began to move and a hole was now formed. There were stairs too.

Cassidy smiled. "Let's get going." Then, to herself again, she said, "I hope everything will be fine."

"Do you wanna see how low you can go guys, huh?" Odd asked.

"_I thought that you and Cassidy were going to lead the way. Go on,"_ Jeremie encouraged.

Yumi rejoined the Lyoko Warriors as they began their descent. Odd and Cassidy lead the way.

Later on, Ulrich took the lead and everyone else followed to find a shining object at the other end of the room. "Jeremie, there's something shining over there!"

"_That's it!"_ Jeremie rejoiced. _"That's Aelita's missing fragment."_

Cassidy's eyes went to a copper-like color. "Something's not right here. I think it's a trap," she murmured, again to herself.

"Cassidy, will you quit worrying?" Ulrich smiled to her. "We'll get done in no time."

But her eye color never changed back to original form. A vision was afoot, but no one was listening. Aelita took the lead, and everyone followed.

They rushed to the center and then…more creepers.

"Look out!" cried Yumi. She then got hit.

"Let's not take this to the scanners," Cassidy told the team, eyes still copper colored. "We can do this!"

Ulrich and Cassidy ran with Aelita to the fragment.

Yumi and Odd took out two creepers on their own (one to each Warrior). Cassidy took out a third, but then started to go with Aelita. "I'm going to protect you every chance I get, Aelita. And if XANA wants me out of the way, then I'm not going out without a fight."

Aelita nodded and noticed her eye color. "A vision?"

"You bet," Cassidy nodded, eyes turning a light chestnut color.

"Let's hope they don't turn white," the pink-haired girl worried.

Cassidy nodded. "If they do, try to Gibbs slap me."

Odd and Yumi were having a heck of a time trying to get rid of the newest Creepers. The boy took out his while Yumi and Ulrich tried to get rid of theirs.

But the more Creepers they defeated, the more there were.

Odd took out one Creeper, blew on his finger like it was a gun smoking, and "put it in his holster".

Yumi saluted him with two fingers.

Aelita and Cassidy got to the end of it and saw something that was challenging. The floor was missing some part of it. She turned to the psychic. "Cassidy?"

"I have a plan," she smirked. "This is almost like Van Helsing. Only…we haven't overstayed our welcome!" She turned her gun into a grappling hook gun, shot at the highest step that could lead them to the fragment, hooked her tail around the string, grabbed Aelita, and slid across to the other end.

Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich were trying their best with the Creepers. Then more of them came. Yumi then said, "We better not hang around here!"

They rushed to the edge, but Odd got shot in the shoulder. He urged Yumi and Ulrich on. "Go on!" he decided to stay behind to fight. **(A/N: What a brave warrior, Odd is)**

Odd tried to rush into them head on but got devirtualized.

Ulrich and Yumi used the zip-line, but the latter got hit by a Creeper and went back to the scanners.

Ulrich made it safely across though. "Jeremie, Yumi and Odd are down!" he blocked some shots with his saber.

"But I'm not," Cassidy retrieved the zip-line. "Thank goodness I watched Van Helsing. The protagonist of the same name used a zip-line that helped him and Anna Valerious escape from Castle Frankenstein."

"Not bad," Ulrich blocked another few shots.

"_I know. Get Aelita's fragment!"_ Jeremie told the three Lyoko Warriors remaining.

"We better not waste time," Cassidy told Ulrich and Aelita cryptically as she sprinted to the stairs.

Sector 5 then started to fall apart. _"The whole room's starting to fall apart. Take Cassidy's advice and MOVE IT!"_ Jeremie yelled.

Aelita and Ulrich ran too, but Aelita was falling behind. She tried to keep up as Ulrich pulled her to the front, the block that they were running on fell.

Cassidy meanwhile made it to the fragment. She didn't touch it. _That's Aelita's job,_ she told herself, eyes growing a little whiter.

Two Mantas broke Ulrich and Aelita's fall. "Jeremie, it's getting worse!"

"Franz Hopper is controlling them, Ulrich. It's getting better," Cassidy's eyes were now only a tint of brown.

"And Cassidy's visions are coming," Aelita told him.

"_Wait until you get near her, Aelita, and do what I taught you,"_ Jeremie told her.

"I'll try, but if it doesn't work, all heck's going to break loose," Aelita looked up at the ceiling.

"And we all know it," Ulrich told her with a nod of his head.

Ulrich's Manta got him to a safe spot.

Aelita's Manta got her to where Cassidy was.

"_This is amazing,"_ Jeremie said out loud.

She tried backhanding her, but it proved useless.

"Try Gibbs slapping her," Ulrich yelled from where he was. "It worked with the séance that Cassidy and I had with Sissi, Hervé, and Nicolas."

She tried that as well, but Cassidy's eyes remained the same.

"It's useless. Cassidy's visions are coming," Aelita sounded desperate. "And we can't stop them."

"_Get to the fragment, then. We'll try to do something to get her visions off,"_ Jeremie told her.

"Okay," Aelita told him.

She walked up to the orb of light. Inside a little miniature figure of herself was set in. She touched it with both her hands and held it for about eight seconds before it shattered.

That set everybody's worries.

Every block in the ceiling started to fall.

"_It's a trap,"_ Jeremie croaked.

Ulrich tried to get away but got devirtualized.

Aelita tried to escape, but a block fell on her Manta and she and Cassidy were stranded.

"Gee, just when it couldn't get worse," Cassidy's eyes were going to copper again.

"Well at least you are here to defend me," Aelita smiled a little.

The psychic nodded. "It has always been my sworn duty to protect you, Aelita. From the day we met, I knew that I had to protect you, like Yumi, Odd, Ulrich, and Jeremie. We are your defenders, and we would never _ever_ give up on you," Cassidy accentuated her "ever" with a good stomp of her foot. "And Aelita, that's what I will never do, is give up on you."

Aelita was proud to say the least.

Jeremie and the others were too.

Then…something happened.

A whole myriad of Creepers came out of nowhere. Cassidy smirked. "This is where I keep my promise. Aelita, stay beside me. Things are going to get hairy."

Aelita kept near her as she fired round after round of bullets at the monsters. XANA then sent an army of Mantas.

She kept on firing, slicing and dicing, and anything else in between. But what she didn't see was an array of tentacles surrounding her. A force pulled Cassidy away.  
"NO!" she screamed.

Aelita was now all alone now. "Help me!"

She looked to see the jellyfish monster. "You just don't give up, XANA!" she screeched, fighting its grasp. "Aelita!" she tried to get out of there, but couldn't.

It rose to the previous room and floated all the way to the Celestial Dome. It had put her down there. "I can find my way back, XANA!"

And as it retreated away, the door to the Celestial Dome shut. She rushed up to it and clawed at it. "Darn you, XANA! I'm not finished with you yet. Why don't you come back and we'll settle this like Woman and Virus!" she yelled. "C'mon-c'mon-c'mon c'mon, c'mon!"

She was so angry that she tried to get back, but she couldn't. She then went rigid and her eyes went white.

**-Back to where Aelita is-**

"_Aelita, behind you!"_ Jeremie was full of shock.

Aelita looked behind her to find the Schyphozoa had returned.

**-Lab-**

Jeremie looked to the screen in shock. "I don't believe it! Cassidy's been separated from Aelita, and now our psychic friend is having a vision, and we can't stop it."

The screen showed Aelita's memory being drained.

Ulrich came in. "There wasn't anything I could do." He sounded like he was ready to faint in five seconds or less.

**-Back to Aelita-**

The Schyphozoa stole her entire memory.

**-To Cassidy-**

She was shocked. "NO!" she yelled in time with Jeremie's no.

"AELITA!" she tried to fight, but the vision put her under again. "NO!"

**-Back to the lab-**

Everyone was rigid with shock.

**-To…Aelita (A/N: I'm shocked, and my OC is too)-**

The last drop of memory faded, the Schyphozoa let go of Aelita. She fell to the ground, _ _ _ _. **(A/N: keep the word in your head. Don't guess in a review)**

**-Back to Cassidy-**

The visions let up; Cassidy hit her knees on the platform, shocked. "I—lost."

She heard Jeremie. _"Aelita's—_ _ _ _!"_

"I should've paid attention," she murmured.

Sector 5 darkened to an ominous black and the data screens disappeared.

Cassidy crossed her legs and grabbed her tail. _I should've stopped it._

**-To the sectors-**

It darkened all around and the towers all turned red.

**-To the shocked gang on Earth-**

"What's… what's going on?" Yumi asked.

Jeremie had his head in his hands. "X-XANA…g-got what he wanted! He's has the Keys to Lyoko. He'll be able to get out of the super computer!"

**-Outside the factory-**

XANA's ghost was darkening the whole sky.

**-Back with Aelita-**

A white orb of energy surrounded her. Inside…

**-Memories-**

There were mountains, and a house below. A little girl was rolling a snowball. "Did you see, Mommy?"

"Don't go too far, sweetheart," the girl's mom told her. It was Aelita making her first snowman.

The next memory was different. "Oh, he's so cute! What should I call him?" Aelita asked her mom and dad. She was in a beautiful red Christmas dress.

"What about Mister Pück? It means goblin," Franz told her.

"Do you like him?" Antea (who also had pink hair) asked.

She hugged her mother. "Thank you, Mommy."

Another memory showed her and her father at a piano. "It's like Math!" Franz told her. "Let me show you!" He then started playing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".

Her mom was reading a book in an armchair. The first moment she was there…and the next she wasn't.

Cut to black. "Mommy?"

The next memory was very important, like all the others. Aelita was bringing her bike up to the Hermitage. Then she went inside. "Daddy?" Franz stopped playing to look at her. "I'm going up to my room."

Later, Aelita was reading a book near the fireplace in her room. Then, that's where things went dead wrong. "Oi, Come outta there!" came a chilling rough voice. She dropped her book and ran to the window. That's where she saw them. The Men in Black. "Daddy!" she cried in panic.

Franz walked in. Aelita continued, "The Men in Black are here."

"I know. Do you remember where Mister Pück is?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Come quickly," Franz told her.

They got off the stairs and saw the Men in Black inside their home. Aelita panicked, but Franz took his daughter's hand and said, "This way." They ran down to the basement and rushed to the outside. Franz closed the doors and put a wood plank on the door. Then took Aelita to the shortcut. They ran to the factory and down to the Lab.

"But where are we?" she looked around curiously.

"In my Laboratory. Come on," Franz told her.

"Where?"

"To a world where we would be safe! You and I…forever," He took her to the scanners. "See you in a minute, honey."

"See you in a minute, Daddy!" Aelita said.

The scanner doors closed.

**-Back to the present-**

Aelita's eyes opened and she gasped.

**-With Cassidy-**

She was still prostrate with grief.

**-To Jeremie and the others-**

Jeremie looked up and started typing.

Ulrich was shocked. "What's going on, Jeremie?"

"It's Franz Hopper!"

**-TO LYOKO-**

"_He's bringing Lyoko back to life!"_

Everything brightened up and the towers went neutral again.

**-To Cassidy-**

She was petting her tail for the umpteenth time when she saw Sector 5 come back to life. She stood up and saw everything. She then stopped her grief, jumped up with a happy whoop and shouted, "FRANZ HOPPER, YOU ARE THE MAN! YOU HAVE SAVED AELITA! I BLESS YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART!"

The door to the Celestial Dome opened up and Cassidy was able to get to Aelita.

She was still looking around her when Cassidy said, "I hate to have you see this, but, I've got to get to Earth."

She raised her pistol and shot her jaw, devirtualizing instantly. She came back to the scanners and stood where Aelita would be coming out.

"_To the scanner room, QUICK!"_ Jeremie ordered his friends.

They then stood around the scanner Cassidy was standing. Aelita came out and Jeremie and the psychic caught her. "Aelita!"

"Jeremie, Cassidy!" she gasped.

They hugged her gently.

**-To Jeremie's room-**

Aelita was petting Kiwi as Cassidy was trying to knit Ulrich's scarf. The psychic was having a hard time concentrating on the stitches.

"Right, would someone please say something funny before I have a heart attack?" Odd was still in shock, as was everyone else.

"Aelita's dad sacrificed his life for her, but I think he's still alive somewhere." Cassidy stopped knitting, put her head in between her legs, and let the tears run out. "And also, Odd: Fifth graders in Texas are using worms to recycle garbage from school lunches. But even the worms won't eat the Salisbury steak."

That shut Odd up.

"All those memories of your life on Earth, that was the fragment that XANA took from you," Jeremie said. "To bind you to him."

"And your father gave them back," Cassidy continued, head still in between her legs.

"Now you're free, Aelita, but unfortunately, so is XANA," Ulrich was leaning on Jeremie's table.

"Shutting the supercomputer down is not going to kill XANA anymore. What are we going to do?" Yumi asked.

"Same as always, we'll fight," Jeremie said. "XANA may have become more powerful, but I don't think he's invincible. If he attacks, we'll counterattack! We'll find a way to get rid of XANA for good!"

"That's right, Jeremie. I'm so glad that you are our leader," Cassidy lifted her head up, eyes still glistening with tears.

"And we'll do everything we can to find your dad, Aelita," Yumi told her friend.

The pink-haired girl pushed Kiwi off her lap. "You're right. The fight has to go on. After all, fighting XANA is my job."

Everyone held hands and the psychic chimed in. "Remember what I said to you about the first day that we met? I said that it's _our_ job. It's not just yours. It's _our_ job!"

Aelita looked up and held Odd's offered hand and Yumi's hand.

They were all Lyoko Warriors, they vowed. And they would not give up until XANA was gone.


	31. Weve gone Straight to Heart with this 1!

**We'll go Straight to Heart with this one. Code Lyoko isn't mine. Cassidy is. The third season's here.**

Jeremie was working on finding XANA, Yumi and Aelita were playing Go, and Cassidy was watching the elevator. "Odd and Ulrich are now in the main entrance," she told the three with her. Her summer was half-good, half-bad. As a promise, William was the one responsible for the tickets. But he tore them up in a thoughtless, cruel rage, tearing up the only chance of her getting home again. Yumi and the others were not pleased when they (and Cassidy) found out.

"Great," Aelita smiled, on her fifth stone. She had passed on two turns (not consecutively), but she was still doing fine. She had missed wise-cracking duo Odd and Ulrich. They had gone to camp for the summer after learning the fate of their air tickets. They had been gone for two months. **(A/N: I'm just going with the info I have and it says French summer vacations go for two months, not two **_**weeks**_**)**

No one had made any captures yet. Cassidy was still looking at the elevator. "Elevator now; I predict their arrival in diez, nueve, ocho, siete, cinco, cuatro, tres, dos, uno!" she counted in Spanish.

The elevator doors opened to reveal Odd and Ulrich. The two did not expect to get a huge hug from the psychic. The two also did not expect to hear their names being squealed by said psychic. "I missed you!" Cassidy almost squeezed them when Aelita stood up and pried the three apart.

Once freed, Odd dramatically fell to his hands and knees and theatrically started gasping for breath.

Ulrich looked to his compadre and scoffed. "Dork!"

The ninja warrior stood up. "Says the boy who had to embarrass himself because he lost a bet."

The samurai blushed. "Cassidy rigged that bet!"

"I believe that stubbornness rigged it," Cassidy slyly tried to evade.

"I—no! It was you!" Ulrich insisted.

"You started the bet Ulrich," Jeremie refused to stopped typing.

"Welcome back, Campers," Aelita said at last.

"Two months without us. Not too long?" Ulrich bent over the Go game.

"Did you miss me a little, ladies?" Odd asked as if the girls were overexcited dogs.

"Yeah, why did you think I nearly squeezed you to the bone?" Cassidy smiled. "Without you or Ulrich, it kinda gets lonely. Even Kiwi missed you, Odd. It took me fifteen embarrassing minutes of singing 'Rock-a-bye Clifford' to get him to sleep. I was almost about to sing 'Rock-a-bye Rufus' next."

"Poor little diggity dog!" Odd sniffled a bit.

"Forget it with me. You could've stayed away three months," Yumi smiled. "XANA attacks—zero!"

"Very quiet summer," Cassidy sighed happily.

"Kinda, ever since XANA had found a way to leave the supercomputer, and then managed to access the World Wide Web, we haven't heard anything," Jeremie sounded half-relieved, half-worried.

"No news is good news, right?" Ulrich sounded confident.

"Well, kinda, Ulrich," Cassidy said. "Keep listening to Jeremie for a few more minutes." Her chocolate brown eyes stayed the same.

"Hey, your eye color isn't changing shades," Odd was amazed.

"Yet. I think relaxing did the trick for the past two months," Cassidy nodded.

"I trust XANA as much as I can throw him!" The psychic girl snickered at that statement. "Shut it! Which is why I just reprogrammed the super-scan."

"So that way if he's attacking anywhere else in the world it'll automatically inform Jeremie, and my visions—obviously will tell me—and will take in Monster counts like they always do. It might help us on how he's planning to use the internet," Cassidy said. "No nightmares over the summer for me."

"That's good," Ulrich stated. "Not even on that sporadic, recurring one?"

"No, it's strange," she frowned a bit.

"But first let's get a handle on what his scheme is," Jeremie told the gang.

"Something about a center, but my vision isn't clear on it yet. They are rebooting," Cassidy informed her friends.

"Being away with no visions can do that to you," Ulrich soothed.

"Here we go," Jeremie pressed a key and a map of the world came up, scanning every known continent so far, starting with Africa. "Yeah!" he pumped a fist.

Odd came in. "Well, let me remind you…"

"Class schedule pick-up is today?" Cassidy guessed, her powers slowly coming back to their owner.

"Yep," Odd nodded. "Your powers are returning to norm."

"I know, Odd."

"Let's move," Odd and the others went out, but Yumi stopped Ulrich.

"Ulrich, wait a second," Yumi gathered the pieces on the Go board and picked it up. "You know, I've been doing a lot of thinking over the summer, and I have something important to tell you."

Cassidy watched with an approving nod. _No "Just friends" talk. I'm sure of it._

"Tell me. I'm listening," Ulrich grew a bit concerned for his friend.

Odd just had to interrupt. "Hey, come on!"

"Be right there!" Yumi told Odd. She turned to him. "I'll tell you later, 'kay?"

**-Administrative Arches-**

"Something important to tell you? Like what?" Odd asked Ulrich.

"I have no idea?" Ulrich said.

"You think maybe she wants you to ask her to marry her?" Odd cracked.

"Yeah, right! I was going to ask you to be my maid of honor, Odd," Ulrich joked.

Cassidy laughed.

Odd then became nervous. "Um…So I was thinking…"

"You aren't going to be put in other classes, Odd," Cassidy said. "I've helped you with your quizzes and exams, remember? So you might be put in our class again."

Sissi came walking. "No class on Saturday morning meaning that on Friday night…"

"We can go to the movies?" Hervé came running up to her.

"Forget it. It means _I_ can go to the movies," Sissi told him. Her demeanor changed when she got to Ulrich. "And as for you, Ulrich, we are in the same class again," she was still angry at him for what he did after he had lost a bet. "It's a shame your psychic friend won't be!"

She kissed Odd on the nose with a hint of fury for no reason and left. He cringed.

Cassidy was shocked. "If I'm not in the same class as you guys, then where am I?"

Jeremie, Aelita, and Yumi came out just then. Odd was still shocked. "Did you just see that?"

Yumi was showing a shocked look. The oddball boy noticed. "Why so shocked."

She put her schedule and Cassidy's near the three. The psychic gasped. "You and I are in the same class together? But I'm so much younger than you. Months younger. And the thought of being in the same class as my ex-boyfriend makes matters even worse. He'd probably beat me with a stick in every class."

The girl needed someone to hug and Odd noticed. He wrapped his arms around her waist and said, "You'll be fine."

"But I'm seven months younger than you, Yumi," Cassidy panicked. "There must've been a mix-up. A mistake. I'll have to talk to the principal on this."

She struggled out of Odd's grip and rushed to Mrs. Weber's office like Ulrich's Super Sprint.

Every member of the group stood shocked.

"Wow," Jeremie said. "While she talks to the principal, we'll go for lunch."

Everyone was about to go when Ulrich stopped Yumi. "Hang on! What was it you wanted to tell me?"

"I wanted to say that—" Yumi was stopped by William.

"Hey, Yumi. It's really great to see you again, but it's not great to see Cassidy again. Did you have a good vacation?" He asked.

"Buzz off, William. I know what you did to my friend! You jerk!" Yumi told him scathing. "And yes, I had a great vacation!"

William left in a huff.

"What a jerk!" Yumi scowled. "I'll tell you when my temper is cooled, Ulrich. I promise."

**-Mrs. Weber's Office-**

"But you have to let me in. There was a mix-up with the school schedules," Cassidy was still panicked.

"I'm sorry, Cassidy. Mr. Delmas is not seeing any students this morning," Mrs. Weber told her.

"I'm not coming as a student, but…" she thought her options through and decided on what Odd would say if he were in her place, "…as a friend."

That confused the administrator. "A…friend?"

"As a friend of…Sissi's." Her blood boiled in anger when she mentioned the name. She hated Sissi with all her heart. She once tried to trick Cassidy into the same fate as herself when the psychic was a new student. It failed though. "Something is going very serious and I've gotta speak with the principal now! Man to teenage girl."

Mrs. Weber cocked her brows up. The two shared a look before the older woman said, "I'll see what I can do." She picked up the phone. "Sorry sir, Cassidy McGuire insists on seeing you!"

Cassidy was calm and cool when she said that.

**-Lunchroom-**

"Jim wants to start up a basketball team this year. Seems he played pro-ball…" Ulrich said.

"But he'd rather not talk about it," Odd, Yumi, Aelita, and Jeremie chimed together, and they all laughed.

Ulrich turned to Yumi and asked in a low voice, "Well, what did you want to tell me?"

Hiroki came up with a brown-haired boy. "Hello," he said.

"Ugh, Hiroki, what do you want," Yumi asked as a sort of complaint to her brother.

"Just wanting to say Hello. Aren't you going to introduce me?" Hiroki asked hopefully.

"No!" Yumi yelled.

"Cool it, sis. I was just going to introduce my new pal, Johnny," Hiroki sounded pleased.

"Listen, Hiroki. Just because you are in Junior High now, doesn't mean you can follow me around, okay, bro?" She was burning with annoyance.

Her young brother leaned in a little bit. "Be nice, or I'll rat on you when you come home late!"

Yumi growled a little as Johnny and Hiroki stalked off, happy as clams. "What a dork!"

Johnny said to Hiroki, "Your sister's really gorgeous."

"You're outta your mind," Hiroki disagreed.

**-Principal's office-**

Mr. Delmas put down a photo of Sissi and said to Cassidy. "So, it seems my Elizabeth has a problem."

"When she found that we weren't in the same classes this year," she thought options through again and thought back to a few minutes ago. She was angry at Ulrich and kissed Odd for some unknown reason. So she mixed it up quickly so she could spit the words out and not look like a dork. "She was really angry."

"I see," he said. "I suppose I'll have to try reasoning with her. There's not much else I can do about it."

"I'm sorry to prove you wrong, sir," Cassidy was keeping to the perfect lane of traffic. She just needed to get over a hill. "But all you have to do is put us in the same class and she won't get so…irate. The problem will be over in no time."

The principal shook his head. "Impossible. It's far too complicated to change the composition of classes. And in addition, you're far too intelligent to keep in ninth grade classes and you are a year older than your younger friends. I'm sorry, McGuire."

_Darn it. I thought that Jim had something to do with it,_ she thought.

"But I'm seven months younger than Yumi," she said. "Shouldn't that at least account for my age?"

"I'll tell you what, McGuire. I'll give you a year of guest passes that will help compensate for this. Anytime you want to use a guest pass, pick the correct date and give it to me or Mrs. Weber so either she or I can tell the teachers. I am sure that'll help you." Cassidy perked up at that.

"It might help the situation," she nodded.

**-Lunchroom-**

Jeremie had the new super-scan up and running on the cafeteria table. He tapped his finger on the table with impatience. All of Europe was clean so it went for the next continent, North America. It showed XANA activity at last.

"FANTASTIC!" Jeremie shouted. "The super-scan has just located XANA."

Aelita was digging through her yogurt cup while Ulrich and Yumi sat by. Odd left to go to his room. Jeremie walked by them. "I'm off to the factory. I wanna find out more!"

"Wait up! I'll go with you," Aelita set her cup and spoon down.

Yumi and Ulrich were now alone. "Okay, what I really wanted to say was that, during all last year, you see—I…"

"ULRICH!" Sissi was still angry.

Ulrich was now getting agitated. He couldn't get Yumi to spit the words out with all these interruptions. So he grabbed her hand and rushed out of the cafeteria.

"I'm not finished with you and you're leaving?**!**"

"Yes!" he bumped into her so harshly that she dropped her tray.

**-With Cassidy-**

She was in her room, kind of happy that she had the guest passes, but kind of sad that she was going to be in classes that had William. She was confused. _Oh, what to do? What to do?_

She remembered the break-up so well that her heart had buried itself in the soils of grief.

Kiwi yipped and she looked at the grey dog. She smiled a little. "At least you don't have a class with a person you used to go out with." She rubbed his belly, just the way he liked it.

_You know, I like you, C-Cassidy. You are so kind, like my master,_ he thought to her.

That shocked her. "How can I read a-animal minds?"

_I don't know._

**-Ulrich and Yumi-**

"Okay, no one will bother us here," Ulrich leaned on a bench while Yumi stood about three feet away. "Go on. I'm listening."

"Right, I think we've both ran around in circles about our emotions," Yumi began.

"We have?" He asked.

"One day we blush, the next day we do it again. One minute, you lose a bet, the next minute, I feel the bargain, and that's why I think we should take it to the next level," she didn't sound happy, but inside she was.

"You mean…?" Ulrich cocked a brow and blushed.

"Girlfriend-boyfriend," Yumi confirmed.

**-Lab-**

Jeremie was working on finding XANA's attack when he saw something. "Uh-oh!" He kept on typing.

"What's wrong, Jeremie?" Aelita asked him.

"We've got company," he typed on some more. "XANA has sent a ton of Monsters to Sector 5."

"He's probably mad that we've found him," she smiled.

"Well, that could be it. But what is he planning to do with all of his troops?" he wondered.

"I'll head for the scanner room." She walked to the elevator.

"Okay, I'll warn the others," Jeremie laid his head back for a bit then went to call Ulrich.

**-Ulrich and Yumi-**

Ulrich smiled. "That's the thing I've been wanting to tell you."

"Is that so?" she smiled too.

His phone rang. "Yeah. I always wanted to say that, but every time I tried, we got caught up in Lyoko." Then he picked it up. "Jeremie, okay fantastic, that's great! Ah, no, we're on our way!"

**-Cassidy-**

She was having a conversation with Kiwi now. _So…how did you and Odd meet?_

"I foresaw him coming, then I met him face to face in science class," Cassidy cocked her head sideways a bit. "Same for you."

Her phone rang and she picked it up. "XANA? I thought so!"

She hung up and said, "Sorry, Kiwi. I'll 'talk' to you later!" She ran out of the room, closed the door, and bumped into Jim. "Oh, hi, Jim. Did you have a good vacation?"

"Yes indeed, McGuire. Spent two months with my nephew. He was really happy to see me." The gym teacher smiled.

Cassidy closed her eyes and pictured Jim and his nephew together. Then she opened them and said, "I bet the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. Like that I'd rather not talk about it line you use."

"Yep, he gathered that from dear ole Uncle Jim," he kept a confident air when he was near her and she didn't know why.

"Okay, listen, Jim. As much as I love to talk to you about your vacation, I have to meet up with my friends. Especially Odd and Ulrich. We missed them a lot," Cassidy smiled and charged off.

**-Later on-**

Yumi and Ulrich were arm-in-arm in the elevator, smiling. Cassidy was having the "We need to talk" look.

"Is there a problem, Cassidy?" Jeremie asked.

"Remember when I first started to read human minds, Jeremie?" she asked.

"Yeah, why?" he wondered.

"I now can read animal minds. The thoughts read from their language to English. I don't understand it yet," she shook her head.

He then turned his attention to Ulrich and Yumi. "And you two?"

"Nope, we're feeling like flying across the starlit night sky," he smiled.

Cassidy looked to her friends with a smile. "I believe a celebration after Lyoko is in order." She imitated a British accent again. "We'll defend that whatever-it-is."

"Your powers are having a slow return," Ulrich smiled at her.

"I liked it when they were dormant, but now, they're getting active," she was determined.

"Head for the scanners. Aelita's there already," Jeremie told them.

**-With Odd-**

Odd ran to the sewer cap, opened it, and lowered himself in.

**-Soon, at the Factory-**

The elevator doors opened up to reveal Odd. Jeremie looked from the computer to him. "About time. Everyone else is waiting for you."

Odd headed down to the scanners and soon he was on Lyoko with his friends.

Ulrich and Cassidy were having a funny conversation. "Are you sure that I have to do that?"

"It's our bet, and there are no change-wager backs," She crossed her arms across her chest symbol with pride.

He growled. "I swear Odd rubs off on you more every day."

"It's like I told Jeremie, Welcome to Lyoko, Ulrich, where even the comedic of warriors rub off on you," She smiled.

They hopped on their vehicles and they were off. Ulrich looked to Cassidy from his OverBike. "What did the principal say?"

She sighed. "I'm too inteligente for ninth grade classes and I'm mayor than my menor classmates. Man, I wish I was Jeremie's edad."

"Any good news?" Ulrich asked her.

"Two words: Guest Passes."

"I guess that'll help a bit," he turned his attention to the ice ahead.

Soon they reached the end of the sector.

"Okay, we're at the edge of the sector," Odd told Jeremie.

"_Great, get into position and I'll enter the code SCIPIO!"_ Jeremie told the others.

Soon the Transporter came and swept the crew away to Sector 5.

Cassidy spark-flashed in the arena. "It's the heart of Lyoko, guys."

"And the powers come back like a steady stream again," Ulrich muttered.

"It's a power I wield both proudly, and sadly," she smiled.

The wall opened up. Ulrich flicked his sword out a hair. "So, where are all these monsters?"

"In the core of Lyoko, it's really vital. Two shield layers protect it, after they're gone, the core will be completely exposed. Then if it takes one more hit, adios Lyoko," Cassidy smiled.

"Wow, and you're here in Sector 5 telling us this now?" Ulrich growled a bit.

"My powers were dormant for two months," she argued. "It won't be long for my eyes to go white again if my powers get control of me."

"_Hurry up!"_ Jeremie told the others calmly.

They ran into the Core Zone and the room inside looked a little straight-forward. _"Don't forget to deactivate the countdown."_

"Don't worry, Jeremie. Aelita will get it this time," Cassidy smiled.

"Aelita?" Ulrich almost yelped. "Are you sure."

"She's grown more confident over the summer. You'll see for yourself," Cassidy nodded.

They stopped at a ledge. Odd spotted the key. "Key in sight!"

"Ready, Aelita?" Cassidy smiled and winked at the pink-haired elf female.

She nodded.

Odd tried but ended up falling some. He caught himself before the fall toward the digital floor.

He climbed back up and he said, "And I thought that I had my A-Game going."

Everyone jumped onto the first platform with ease. Cassidy smiled. "'Should've let Aelita go first."

Aelita turned to the ninja warrior. "I'll go and get it!" She leapt from block to block. Everyone, minus Cassidy, stood amazed at what Aelita was doing. The female cat warrior was smiling at her with pride. _There she goes._

As Jeremie relayed the countdown from the lab, Aelita jumped on the last two platforms, somersaulted once, jumped up high, and stopped the countdown on the last second.

"Zero," Aelita finished.

"_Nice one, Aelita,"_ Jeremie told her.

"Congratulations, Aelita," Cassidy cheered from her side.

The other three stood shocked and amazed. Then the platforms started to move.

"I think you better get here ASAP," Aelita told the four on the other side.

Everyone ran, hopped, skipped, jumped, and Super Sprinted from moving platform to moving platform.

Soon three out of four Lyoko warriors were on the other side. Odd was trying his best to get there.

He nearly fell again, before Ulrich said, "Your hand."

Odd climbed up as best as he could with no claws but saw a platform about to get him. He climbed faster and managed to get to Ulrich's hand before getting devirtualized.

"Looks like you've got your Z game going here," Ulrich joked.

"Lay off, will you?" Odd looked away, offended. Then he came back. "Did you talk to her?"

Ulrich didn't know whether to tell him right there on Lyoko or not. So he said, "Lay off, will you?"

Soon they were lowered to the door. The ladies got off first and the boys followed behind them.

"Jeremie," Yumi told him, "We're at the elevator."

"_That's good. There are more and more monsters in that room,"_ Jeremie told the others.

"We'll get there, but it will take some time." Cassidy promised.

"_I've got a bad feeling about this._" Jeremie told the others.

"But soon, something cool will happen. Something really cool and I believe Ulrich will lose the bet we held," Cassidy smiled.

"No way, you are going to lose the bet hard," Ulrich bantered back.

She turned her nose up at him. And when she lowered her head, her eyes were a little lighter in color tone.

Ulrich gulped.

They all jumped at the right moment and got to the Celestial Dome. "We're here, Jeremie," Ulrich said. "Where do we go now to crack some monsters' heads?"

"_Head for the south pole of the Dome,"_ Jeremie told them. _"That's where you can get into the chamber."_

"Jeremie, program our vehicles," Cassidy looked up to the blue, core-like covering of the Celestial dome.

"_Coming up!"_ Jeremie said to the cat psychic.

"Hey, maybe that's where XANA is having his annual Monster's Ball," Odd joked. "Because up till now, we haven't seen them."

"Nope. Remember what I said," Cassidy shook her head.

"Right, but look over there," Ulrich paid his attention and found two Mantas on the prowl…if they had legs, feet, paws and claws that is.

"Yippee-I-ay, we've got monsters," she smiled.

They started to shoot. Yumi defended Aelita. Cassidy shot her gun but thought inside, _Aelita's going to rock our worlds. Both Lyoko and Earth._ Her eyes whitened.

Odd looked to Cassidy. "Uh-oh. Cassidy's powers are now all returned and not a hint overdue."

"Try to slap her," Ulrich shielded another two or three lasers. "It's what Jeremie did the first time."

Odd nodded and backhanded the psychic. She returned. "What happened?"

"Your powers…"

"Okay, I get the picture," Cassidy put a hand up.

Ulrich threw his sword at one of them and three laser arrows followed it. The barrage destroyed one Manta.

Odd laughed in total victory. "How about that, huh? Bulls-Eye! There's the A-Game." He flipped in excitement.

Ulrich's sword flipped back to its owner, missing the ninja by mere inches. "Get real, man. That was me who got them."

Cassidy laughed. _Boys._

"Huh, it was?" The ninja turned to the samurai.

"_This is no time to compete with each other. Move out,"_ Jeremie told them.

The three air based vehicles came in a virtual snap.

Cassidy went with Odd, this time, determined and not as nervous. "By the way, Odd, Ulrich's sword connected first," she whispered in his ear.

"Okay, it's Ulrich's then," Odd nodded.

Aelita went with Yumi, and Ulrich went alone.

The lone Manta was shooting at Odd and Cassidy, and the driver tried to dodge. It also tried to fire at the other Lyoko Warriors.

Soon they were near the entrance to the Core of Lyoko. But there was another Manta firing.

Yumi told Aelita to hold on as she grabbed her fan and blocked several of the shots from the Manta. The third and second Manta reunited and tried to shoot at the boys and the only girl left.

Yumi and Aelita made it to the south pole of the Dome. They looked up. _"You're there. Can you see the access?"_ Jeremie asked.

"It's pretty hard to miss, huh?" Yumi asked.

"_Great, go on in!"_

Yumi and Aelita helped themselves in.

"_Hey, what are you guys and Cassidy doing? Yumi and Aelita are already in the passage!"_

"Yeah, we know that. If Odd didn't have his X-Y-Z-Game going, we'd be there by now!" Ulrich deflected some shots from the Manta pursuing him.

Odd was shooting his arrows. "If this monster would just stop flying for a few seconds." Then his arm cocked an empty. "Oh."

"_Okay, I get the picture. I'll give you some more laser arrows,"_ Jeremie said.

Cassidy held onto Odd so she wouldn't lose her balance. Odd tilted his board so the two were next to the Manta and jumped on.

Cassidy wobbly tried to keep her balance on the board. That was one cat-like feature she didn't get—Balance on an OverBoard.

"Alright, Ugly, now we're gonna see what you're made of," Odd told the manta he was riding. He whooped for joy.

Cassidy then gained the balance she needed. "It's a little hard doing this on my own."

"You get used to it," Odd shouted to her.

He scratched the rubbery texture and the Manta rushed forward, leaving Cassidy, Ulrich, and the other Manta in the virtual dust. Ulrich scoffed at the ninja. "Nutcase."

Cassidy tried to match up with Ulrich's OverBike. "Yeah, well, he's loyal to us. A good addition. Don't you forget it."

"_You've got a full supply,"_ Jeremie told Odd.

Odd smiled. "Cool." He was way ahead of the pack. Scratching his fingernails in, the Manta shot upward to the Room. The ninja was now losing balance. "Ulrich!" he called desperately.

The samurai heard his pleas and revved up his vehicle, leaving Cassidy behind to take care of the last Manta.

Odd lost his balance and fell backward while the Manta was destroyed by the rapidly opening and shutting door. He, on the other hand, decided to sky-dive a little, shooting an arrow on the Manta that was at Cassidy's disposal, and landing on Ulrich's vehicle. The samurai smirked. "Not bad." And the three made it inside without getting devirtualized.

**-With Yumi and Aelita-**

"_Odd, Ulrich, and Cassidy are in the tunnel,"_ Jeremie told them.

"At last. Now we can trip the mechanism and go," Yumi said.

Odd and Ulrich stopped the OverBike and got off. Cassidy came up on the OverBoard, still a tad off-kilter, and got off. "Sorry to keep you waiting," Cassidy nodded.

"We got a little impatient," Aelita told her.

"Sorry about that, Aelita. Odd had his Alphabet game going, ran out of arrows, and had to ride a Manta. Ulrich was trying his best not to get hit," Cassidy explained.

"Then how did Odd get on Ulrich's OverBike?"

"He sky-dived a bit," Cassidy sighed.

Aelita then tripped the mechanism and stairs formed right before their very eyes. The pink-haired girl led the way and the others followed.

Soon they made it to another room. The Core room. "Jeremie, I think we're here!" Yumi called out to him.

"_Can you see the monsters? What are they doing?"_ Jeremie asked in a worried tone.

"Shooting at the Core, Jeremie," Cassidy told him. "And I believe that soon enough we'll see who is the winner of the bet we made."

Ulrich's panic level went to high alert so high that if it were more cartoon, a Klaxon would have sounded.

"Right, then it's down with the Creepers," Odd said.

"We have to defend the Core with our very lives here. Don't forget that, now it may sound crazy enough, but I know that Aelita's father is still here. That was the vision I had," Cassidy said. "And I would've found out where, but Odd slapped me."

Aelita led the way again and the others followed.

Two Mantas started to fire. Yumi decided to stay behind. "I'll handle those two. You head for the sphere." She deflected enemy fire, jumped on one, then the other, made an X on the one she was on, and landed on a stair, retrieving her boomerang fans. She took three shots to the back and was devirtualized.

Ulrich stopped and took notice. "Yumi!" he shouted.

Laser fire overtook Odd immediately after that. He flipped his way to Ulrich and Cassidy's side. "Forget it. Concentrate on our monster friends."

Ulrich heaved a sigh inside. _And she just told me we should amp up our relationship by one level._

Cassidy patted Ulrich's back. "And besides, she's on Earth! We'll see Yumi again, I promise."

"I sure hope so," Ulrich moved forward a bit.

Odd shot an arrow at a Creeper. "Hey, this is not just an A-Game. It's more like an A-Plus."

"Focus, Odd," Cassidy commanded in fake Scottish. "This is no time for games."

The last Manta shot at Odd and he devirtualized instantly. That left three Lyoko Warriors left—Ulrich, Cassidy, and Aelita. Ulrich Super Sprinted to where Aelita was and started defending her. Cassidy felt a virtual brick of pleasure settle in her heart. _Oh, if he only knew the words energy field._

Ulrich then was in close enough range that he slashed the Manta. It exploded on sight.

"The first shield layer just blew, Ulrich, we don't have a lot of time," Cassidy told him. "We need to get rid of these monsters."

He jumped a few steps and got rid of a Creeper.

But then another Creeper tried to devirtualize him. He deflected a shot good enough to kill that Creeper.

Then the second-to-last Creeper started shooting at Ulrich and Cassidy at the same time.

Cassidy sighed, dodging the shots. "As I've said before, women's work is never done. Girls gotta do what girls gotta do, and so on and so forth."

Ulrich deflected another laser and it hit that Creeper. The last Creeper shot at Ulrich and he devirtualized.

Now it was up to the female members of the group. Cassidy started shooting, but the Creeper got smart and dodged every shot, wiggling as it did so. Cassidy shot again, but this time… "Ugh, jammed bullet. That'll take about a minute, which we don't have."

The Creeper tried to devirtualize Cassidy, but she dodged. She accidentally took a misstep and this time the Creeper was successful. Cassidy devirtualized in an instant.

Now it was up to Aelita. _"Aelita, it's your turn now!"_ Jeremie sounded proud.

**-Lab-**

"Her turn for what? She can't do anything," Odd protested.

"Watch," Jeremie told Odd and then smiled.

**-Lyoko-**

The Creeper came up in front of Aelita while she was facing its direction. It was all up to her now.

A bright pink orb appeared suddenly in Aelita's hand as the Creeper charged up his laser. It fired at the same Aelita did. She devirtualized and the Creeper was killed.

**-Lab-**

"Uh? Huh? But how could Aelita have done that?" Odd was shocked.

Jeremie sat with a reserved expression but then came to Earth as fast as his expression came. "Aelita developed some new powers over the vacation. She's perfectly capable of fighting like you can."

Yumi was worried with what was on the screen. "Jeremie, look at that!" It showed Aelita's avatar card in the devirtualization process.

Jeremie started typing fast, and realized. "Oh, no!" he was in a panic. "She's been devirtualized."

"Are you saying that…" Odd tried for words.

"That's right. I—I—I can't believe it!" Jeremie put his hands to his head. A scanner window showed that one of the scanners was active. He lifted his head. "What's going on?" He saw the scanner window. "Come on. Hurry up!" He went down by ladder and rushed to the scanner.

Cassidy said to Ulrich, "Get ready to eat your words." She had a small wicked smile on her face.

"You're the one who's going to choke," he teased back.

"Been there, done that," she said off-handedly.

Jeremie leaned on the scanner and panted. It opened up to reveal Aelita. Jeremie looked up at her. "Hey, you realize that you almost gave me a heart attack?" he asked.

Aelita leapt to him and hugged him with a smile.

Cassidy turned to Ulrich. "Pucker up, Samurai."

Ulrich growled at her. "Soon you are going to lose." So he walked up to Yumi and kissed her on the lips. At first, the geisha warrior was shocked, but then realized that talk and enjoyed it.

After, Ulrich was still shocked. "Could someone tell me what happened?"

Odd came in. "Well it seems now that if Aelita loses all of her life points…"

"Aelita will come home, safe and sound, like we do," Cassidy finished then smiled wickedly at Ulrich. "Told you so in the Ice Sector. Man, you never listen. She regained her human memory and now, she's able to devirtualize like all of us."

"We don't need Code: Earth anymore to bring you in," Jeremie smiled.

"That'll really help now that XANA is determined to destroy Lyoko to keep us from finding him on the net," Aelita said.

Yumi was next to talk. "That's great, Aelita. You're a full-fledged Lyoko Warrior from now on."

Aelita smiled and blushed.

**-Odd and Ulrich's dorm-**

"What? You mean that you and Yumi are boyfriend-girlfriend?" Odd tilted his head to one side.

"Yep," Ulrich told him.

"What did you say?" Odd asked.

"I told her that it was the same thing I wanted to tell her, but that we were so busy that I never found the time," Ulrich said.

"I now understand you two." The ninja warrior was about to go out of his dorm room.

"Where are you going?" Ulrich asked.

"To get Kiwi. He must have missed me due to all the stories I heard from Cassidy."

"Oh, yeah? Be careful, good buddy. We don't want Kiwi getting caught now."

Odd shut the door and soon opened the door to Aelita and Cassidy's room. Kiwi found his owner and came up to him, whimpering, yipping, and barking happily.

"He says he's very happy to see you again," Cassidy smiled.

"Well, thanks for taking care of him," Odd told Cassidy.

"You're welcome, Odd."


	32. Lyoko Minus One equals Lyoko wo a Sector

**Okay, Lyoko is going to be put into an equation in a few minutes so hang tight.**

**Code Lyoko is not mine, but Cassidy and the plot are. Deal?**

**And I was so busy (making videos, going to school, celebrating my birthday) that I almost didn't have time for this.**

Ulrich awoke to his alarm clock screaming the Subsonics hit _Break Away_. He didn't like it. "Odd, would you put off that alarm," he yelled and groaned at the same time, pulling his pillow over his ears to try to muffle the sound. He looked to the bed next to him, the pillow now off his ears. "Odd!"

The aforementioned person, however, was nowhere to be seen. Only Kiwi was sleeping. The dog could sleep through anything if his mind was set on it.

Confusion swept Ulrich's eyes as he looked at the empty by one occupant bed.

**-Where's Odd, you ask?-**

"Here are the photo-copies you asked me for, Odd. You wanted thirty-two, is that right?" she asked kindly.

"That's right!" Odd smiled. "Thirty-two, thank you." **(A/N: LOL, with the added leaflet, Odd rhymes.)**

**-Ulrich's awake now-**

Ulrich opened Jeremie's door, Cassidy in tow. "Wakey-wakey," she smiled deviously, "Jeremie."

"The birds are chirping away!" Ulrich smiled too.

They both saw Jeremie passed out in front of his computer. Ulrich started to make a move, but Cassidy stopped him. "I have a brilliant idea."

He shrugged. "You have the stage."

"And, don't believe what I say in this room today. Just go along with it." She walked forward, cleared her throat, and said, "Oh, my, gosh! Can you believe it, Ulrich?" she winked.

"I seemed to have forgotten. What are you talking about?" Ulrich asked stiltedly.

"Odd just asked Aelita to marry him," Cassidy squealed as if it were real.

Jeremie shot up. "What?**!**"

The psychic fell into a heap and started laughing. "That—worked—too—well!" she choked out in between riotous laughter.

"Not funny, Cassidy," Jeremie scowled a little.

"But hey, it woke you up, Jeremie," she recovered.

"Anyway, what's the time?" he rubbed his eyes a little.

"What's the story? You give up sleeping in a bed, or what?" Ulrich asked.

"He was working on the program to send us into the Internet to combat XANA, but he got so tired that he slept on the table instead," Cassidy said.

"Did you figure something out?" Ulrich asked Jeremie.

"No," Jeremie sounded grim.

"You'll find the way soon. Like Yumi said last year, it's just a question of time," Cassidy shrugged.

**-Boy's bathroom-**

Jeremie turned on the water faucet and washed his face.

"Just look at you! No one's going to vote for you," Ulrich smirked. He was talking about the class rep election that was coming up. The only opponents, according to Jeremie, were him and Hervé. "They're not voting for zombie of the year but for their student rep."

"It's not about how you look, but it's all about what you have to say," Jeremie dried his face.

"At least you're optimistic," Ulrich comforted his buddy, and then joked, "It can't hurt, I guess." He posed in front of the mirror a bit, just for fun. "Anyway, you've got one thing going for you. You're up against the lamest candidate in the galaxy."

**-Sissi's bedroom-**

"Now, how about giving me the smile of a _real_ winner," Sissi demanded Hervé.

He gave a weak one. It wouldn't even _count_ as a smile of victory. It would count as a nervous smile.

"Hey, what's that?" She sounded disgusted.

"A-a smile of victory," he told her.

Sissi scoffed. "We'll never win at this rate."

"Then why don't you run in, Sissi?" he asked.

"I can't. The principal's daughter isn't _allowed_ to be a class rep. Therefore, the new student rep is going to be you and definitely _not_ Jeremie. Do I make myself perfectly clear?" She pressed her hands down on Hervé's knees.

He gave a somewhat better smile. Sissi smiled. "That's what I like to see, a nice winner's smile."

Hervé covered some of his teeth and said, "Uh, it's not a smile, Sissi, you're crushing my kneecaps." He pointed down and groaned a little.

**-In the classroom-**

Odd was handing out fliers. "Take a copy of my platform!" he announced to everyone. Cassidy grabbed hers and Jeremie was confused; he thought that there were only two candidates.

"Platform? But for what?" Jeremie was astonished.

"_My_ platform. You're looking at the next student rep," Odd smiled.

"And worst of all, Odd told me to keep quiet so he could surprise everyone," Cassidy glared at her wise-cracking friend with such a stare that if looks could murder, Odd would be on the floor writhing in pain. "And threatened to use me as target practice every time we trained on Lyoko."

"You're running, Odd?" Jeremie still was figuring how many hydrogen atoms were normally together **(A/N: Which are two)**. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because _surprise_ is the secret weapon of my election campaign," Odd gloated to his now-election opponent.

"And the second weapon is poetry," Aelita continued. "If you all want to have your say, why not give the nod to good old Odd."

"Good poetry, Aelita," Cassidy smiled. "I'm so glad that we are roommates."

"Just keep your knitting materials off of my bed," Aelita play-bantered.

"That's great. I love lines that rhyme with Odd," he smiled.

Cassidy laughed as Jeremie and Ulrich stood with their mouths agape. Aelita put a hand over her mouth and giggled softly.

**-En el Bus-**

"I'm warning you, anyone trying to pull _anything_, DETENTION!" Jim rattled. "You can join that smart aleck William Dunbar in the study hall."

That bored Yumi enough.

Mrs. Hertz put a hand on Jim's huge chest. "Thank you, Jim, I think you made yourself clear."

He saluted the elderly science teacher. "Roger, Suzanne." Then he realized who he was talking to. "Um…I'm sorry, I mean, Mrs. Hertz."

"Fine, let's not forget what we're looking for. The purpose of our field trip today is to witness the early effects of pollution of our ecosystem, and especially in the forests," she continued. "Effects that someday mean the end of our forests and all animal and plant life, of course."

That freaked Jim out. "Are you saying that there won't be any more bunny rabbits or little birds or trees or mushrooms? They'll all just disappear?" He got a little too close and sniffed the air around Mrs. Hertz. "Oh, wow I love that perfume."

**-To the Campaigning Three-**

Odd was giving his platform. "And so I ask you, why should good students represent the bad? Why not let a near dropout like me speak out for all the other near dropouts? And why should people older than you go to a higher grade when they're just doing their best?"

Jeremie and Hervé stood by. The acne-and-glasses boy looked to him. "You're not smiling Jeremie. How come?"

"Because I don't want to look as dorky as you, Hervé, okay?" Jeremie answered.

"What do Jeremie and Pichon know of our problems, huh? They always get A's and Bs, right? They don't know the fear of getting left back. They're not capable of defending our cause."

Cassidy stood up from her chair on the side of Mr. Fumet's desk and clapped her hands. "Muy bien, mi novio, Odd. Tú eres listo."

Ulrich was next to stand, making Aelita turn her head to him in surprise. "Bravo, good point, Odd. Okay, near-dropouts, it's time for all of us to take a stand."

That caused the other students to clap their hands and talk wildly about Odd getting the vote. Even Aelita joined in.

Mr. Fumet then stood up to calm the class. "Right, now, quiet down."

Jeremie's laptop started to beep.

**-Lyoko's forest region-**

Pulsations led up to the tower like wild horses on the way to the meadow and the tower turned as red as a stoplight.

**-Back on Yumi's bus-**

Yumi was staring out the window, still bored.

Jim was sleeping on Mrs. Hertz shoulder. She was thinking, _I don't get paid enough for this,_ as she tried to bump him off her shoulder.

The driver was keeping his eyes on the road when the dashboard started to come alive with electricity and **XANA decided to play.**

He stopped the bus to a screaming, screeching, non-colliding halt, causing several of the female students to ask loads of questions and panic. Jim woke up and yelled, "Go on now. Don't be scared. You gotta put her down when you are in the jungle and—" Then he realized that he was in reality.

"What's going on?" the bus driver asked as smoke emanated from the dash and went around to the other students.

Yumi, unbuckling her seatbelt, stood up and asked, "What's the matter? Are we already th—" then she gasped. All her classmates and both her teachers were **possessed by XANA.** "Oh, no…" she groaned.

Jim's hand was sparking with electricity. Yumi backed up. His electricity aimed for her, shot, but missed as it made a hole in the bus's window.

She looked as he started to charge up again and jumped through the window as more electric sparks almost overtook her. She landed on her hands and feet, looked back as the teachers and her classmates (XANA symbols in their eyes) started to rally up for a chase.

Yumi took to her feet and started running.

**-Campaigning Three part Deux-**

"In conclusion, I promise to put lots of pretty plants in each and every one of your classrooms." Hervé waved to the class. "Won't that be nice, huh?"

Cassidy shivered but for some reason vehemently reminded herself that whatever it was that bothered the psychic was nothing or no more.

Sissi cheered her head off and announced that she was going to vote for Hervé.

Odd turned to his friend-turned-opponent. "You're turn at bat now, Einstein."

"Odd, this is not a game. Being elected as the class rep is really serious with lots of responsibilities," Jeremie warned.

"And you don't think I'm capable of handling them?" he poked.

"I didn't say that!"

"No, but that's what you're thinking!"

Cassidy came in between them. "Odd, Jeremie, stop this right now, please. Do you want to wake the Rekmas?"

"Salud," Odd was confused.

"What?" Jeremie was just as confused.

"The drifting where friends drift and the friend_ship_ dies," Cassidy was getting a small bit agitated. "Let's not do that."

"Okay, okay, don't get your powers in a twist," Odd showed defiance.

"Sorry, Cassidy," Jeremie stayed calm.

Jeremie's cell phone began to ring. Cassidy looked to him. "Answer it. It's Yumi."

He picked his phone up. "Hello? …Yumi?"

**-Back with Yumi-**

"Jeremie, I'm in real big trouble! My whole bus has been XANAfied."

**-Back with Jeremie, Odd, and Cassidy-**

Cassidy spark-flashed and gasped. "Oh, no. If I was on that field trip, I would be in peril too. Gosh darn it to heck."

Jeremie came back on. "Are you sure?" Odd gasped.

Cassidy, Aelita, and Ulrich showed the "We need to get to the Factory" look.

"If you don't mind, Belpois. We're all waiting for you," Mr. Fumet reminded.

Jeremie had to make it quick so he put his hand on the side of his mouth and said, "Yumi, look, I gotta hang up, but don't worry."

"Don't worry?**!** She's got _fifteen-sixteenths_ of the tenth graders after her hide, and that excludes my ex-boyfriend who got detention, and you are telling her _not to worry?__**!**_**"** Cassidy whispered hysterically.

Odd pulled her in for a hug. "Calm down, novia! We'll get through this together."

"I know we will."

To Odd, Jeremie said, "XANA just launched an attack."

"Jeremie, if you're still a candidate, then speak up," Mr. Fumet was getting a little impatient. "What's your platform?"

"Um…Well, I—I had some notes but I—I left them back at my room," Jeremie lied.

"Nice," Cassidy complimented in a whisper.

He picked up his laptop bag. "I'll go and get them."

"I'll go with him. Keep an eye on the competition," Odd left the room after Jeremie rushed out.

Ulrich and Aelita went after them. "And, we better go, too, to separate them if they start fighting."

Cassidy rushed out, yelling, "Girls, girls, you're both pretty. Can I go back to the States now?"

That caused Mr. Fumet and Hervé to look at the open door with wide eyes. That was the weirdest thing that Cassidy had ever said.

**-Back to Yumi-**

Yumi was running her hardest through the forest. Eight years of track prepared her for this moment.

**-To Cassidy's ex-boyfriend-**

William was drawing a picture in detention. He gave up and thought around about something.

"Attack confirmed," Jeremie's voice came from outside the study hall, alerting William to the window. "XANA has activated a tower."

He saw Jeremie with his laptop on his lap, Aelita and Odd standing around him, Cassidy—his ex-girlfriend—sitting on the ground, staring at the window with a fixed gaze, and Ulrich trying someone's phone number.

**-To the gang outside the window-**

"Yumi," Ulrich called, "where are you?"

**-Yumi-**

"At the Red Trail Crossroads," Yumi panted, her throat was getting dry from all the running. She was getting desperate. "You better hurry. I can't hold out much longer."

**-Back to the gang-**

"Be right there," Ulrich told her and hung up.

"You better go is all I have to two-cent," Cassidy sighed. "Just be warned that my ex will be coming too. Be careful, but also William will prove to be an ally for this attack."

"And we'll see about the activated tower on Lyoko," Jeremie told the rest.

Ulrich headed off to his assignment.

To an unaided eye, somebody's eyes were watching. And they were William's eyes.

He snuck past Mr. Jameson, who was napping, and left the room.

**-Back to Yumi-**

She was running from her XANAfied classmates and teachers.

She kept running until her feet tripped on a root. Yumi looked back. The XANAfied gang was still on her trail.

XANA-Jim ordered a stop and looked around. A confident smirk grew on his face.

The other XANA-students ran by a tree Yumi was hiding behind. Blessed relief swept through the Japanese teen as she let out a sigh. But she gasped as the relief was _not_ to last. XANA-Jim had found her and fired a blast of electricity, but missed as Yumi fled out to the clearing.

XANA-Jim jumped out of the bushes and tried to zap her, but missed.

**-Scanner-**

"_The activated tower is…"_

"In the Forest Sector," Cassidy and Jeremie's voices clashed together and formed an echo.

**-Lab-**

"I'll try to get you in as close as possible," Jeremie told the two girls and the only boy in the scanner room.

Soon the three were on Lyoko.

**-Lyoko's Forest Sector-**

"Okay, we're here Jeremie," Odd told the sky.

"And I'm glad we've not woken the Rekmas!" Cassidy sounded pleased.

"_The tower is due north. You should be able to see it from where you are."_

The three looked to that direction and saw in the distance, the tower was in their sights. "It sticks out from all the geese," the psychic smiled.

"_Here are your taxis,"_ Jeremie told them.

In instant, the OverBoard and the Over-Kartbed appeared. Cassidy smiled as her vehicle came over to her and the virtual engine purred. "Yeah I missed you, too, good buddy."

Odd's vehicle came to its owner and he hopped on. He looked to Aelita and said, "Hop aboard. We're off."

Cassidy laid herself in the Over-Kartbed and reveled in the revving roars of the engine.

And they were off to the tower.

"_XANA is sending you some monsters,"_ Jeremie warned. _"How original can you get?"_

"Tarantulas, nice," Cassidy sounded really pleased. "I was wondering when I would see them again."

As predicted, four gorilla-spider-like monsters came.

That elicited a laugh from Aelita.

"And he hates it when we're bored," Odd continued. Then he came up with a plan. "Okay, let's be polite…"

"Polite?" the psychic smiled. "We end up having to take etiquette lessons from XANA."

"We'll say hello to them first," Odd continued, brushing off the comment Cassidy pulled.

"_Hey, Odd, take care of yourself. If anything happened to you, I wouldn't have any competition except for Hervé,"_ Jeremie sounded proud.

"Um…I'd take a little humble pie if I were you, Jeremie. Who knows, maybe Odd might win." Cassidy winked to Odd, a smile on her face. It represented something, something her powers were saying, and Odd smiled on it.

Soon they were face to face with the enemy's soldiers.

"Don't worry, Einstein. I'll take care of them. Then I'll go after you," he smiled.

"Odd," Cassidy play-warned.

"Laser Arrow!" he cried and got one right on the nose.

It disintegrated and Cassidy got rid of one more to smoothly keep her vehicle from disappearing.

"Let's turn around," Odd said.

"We're not surrendering, Jeremie. Aelita is in good hands here," Cassidy reassured.

The last two Tarantulas fired their lasers and Odd, Aelita, and Cassidy had to dodge.

"So much for our little greeting, eh, Odd?" Cassidy called from her ground-only vehicle.

That didn't distract Odd from driving, but a laser connected to his OverBoard and he and Aelita had to turn-tail for balance. They almost collided with a tree but the pink-haired girl jumped off and Odd tipped his vehicle to go up for a bit.

Aelita slid across the green floor when all of a sudden a sidecar came in and scooped her up. The sidecar reconnected to the Over-Kartbed. "Are you okay, Aelita?" Cassidy asked.

"A little shaken, but I'm fine." Aelita sat up in the sidecar to look at her friend and roommate. "Thank you for the lift."

"No hay problema, señorita," Cassidy smiled, using her Spanish skills.

Aelita smiled. She was so lucky to have a friend that cared for her. Yet she remembered a snippet of Cassidy's speech.

"_It has always been my sworn duty to protect you, Aelita."_

"All aboard for that activated tower and I hope we don't run into the Schyphozoa on this run." The pink-haired girl was throttled out of her thoughts and back to reality in no time.

"_You sense the Schyphozoa, Cassidy?"_ Jeremie was in shock.

"My powers tell me so."

Then Jeremie let out a yelp and said, _"Better be careful, ladies. Lots of Tarantulas are on their way."_

"Calm down, Jeremie. Aelita's with me. I'm going to get her to the tower. Don't worry, I promise my powers won't go nuts on me like the first Sector 5 mission of this school year. Unless they do, then I don't know what to do," Cassidy promised.

Aelita shot two energy fields, but unfortunately **(A/N: :()** they missed. They were able to part the two Tarantulas down the middle and make like Moses though.

"You girls just can't stay away from danger, huh?" Odd yelled from his OverBoard.

"Hey, you're talking to _Danger_ Psychic here," Cassidy joked. "We're doing our best not to get shot at."

They were still in the direction of the activated tower.

**-With Ulrich-**

Ulrich found Yumi's trail of pounded-in footprints and, furrowing his brows, followed the trail, unknowing that William was following.

**-With Yumi-**

Yumi was getting the beating of a lifetime. XANA-Jim shocked her with enough electricity to knock her out.

The evil, gut-turning smile on the XANAfied gym teacher grew.

**-Ulrich-**

Ulrich tried Yumi's number once again. "Come on, Yumi. Pick up!" He then gave up and heard someone's footsteps coming up to where he was.

He leaned up against a tree and waited out his tag-along.

William walked up the way.

"What are you doing here? What are you following me for?"

_Remember, Ulrich. He'll ally you this mission,_ Cassidy's words came into play.

"I heard it all. Yumi's in trouble," said William. "I came to see if I can help."

"I don't know what you're talking…" Ulrich was silenced by Yumi's terrified cries for help.

"Now you know what I'm talking about?" William turned to face him.

**-Yumi's dilemma-**

Yumi came around to see her teachers and classmates advancing. She let out another cry of panic.

**-Back to the three Lyoko Warriors-**

They were almost to the tower, but they had to make a little detour and hide behind a tree.

Cassidy had lost her vehicle due to the Tarantula's lasers. She half-minded it though.

"Here's the plan, Odd. You keep the Tarantulas as ocupado as you can while Aelita and I beat feet to the tower, comprende, mi novio?"

"That sounds like a plan to me!" Odd smiled.

"Aelita, you up to it?" Cassidy asked, her eyes full of hope and her heart filled half of the way with fear.

"If it means saving Yumi, I wouldn't say no," Aelita told her roommate.

"Then let's go," she smiled confidently.

Odd went out of hiding one way to take care of the two Tarantulas ("When you gotta go…"). He hoped not to get hit.

"…you gotta go," Cassidy finished with a slight change in eye color, but the color came back to normal brown.

He rammed his way through and got the two to turn around and follow him. Aelita and Cassidy prepared to run the other way to get to the tower.

He got rid of the second-to-last one and decided to do battle with the last one.

"_Wait, girls, it's still too close."_

Cassidy's virtual heart sank. She didn't like being restrained, but she knew better than to argue with Jeremie. So she signed a "Hold on" signal, which was a lasso-like movement with her right hand and pantomiming making the "rope" taut, to Aelita.

Her roommate nodded.

**-Back to Yumi's problem-**

XANA-Jim and all the other XANA-victims were giving Yumi hell.

Ulrich and William looked onward from a boulder.

William turned to the brown-haired boy. "Hey, that's Jim shooting lightning out of his fingers. Is this a nightmare or what?"

"William, do you want to help Yumi or not?" Ulrich asked him. He didn't have time for tomfoolery around the forest. All he had was his cell phone and a plan. "Then don't say anything and do as I tell you."

_Good job. You've made an ally for this XANA attack,_ Cassidy's words complimented.

_Shut up, random words out of Cassidy's mind,_ Ulrich snapped. _This is not the time!_

**-Back on Lyoko-**

Odd was still leading the Tarantula in circles as Cassidy and Aelita awaited an OK from the captain.

He ran under the gorilla-spider creature as it prepared to club him with its laser arm, and lead it away from the girls.

"_Aelita, Cassidy, GO!"_ Jeremie ordered.

"On it, Jeremie. We'll have that tower deactivated in two wags of a sheep's tail." Cassidy smiled as she signed an okay signal, which was a peace sign.

**-To the lab-**

Jeremie was making a computer-to-phone call to Ulrich. "Ulrich?"

**-Forest-**

"What, Jeremie?" Ulrich didn't have time for a phone call, but if it was important, he had to pick it up.

"_Aelita and Cassidy are heading for the tower!"_ came a reassuring call, _"Aelita should be shutting it down in about five minutes."_

Ulrich and William (from different areas) still watched the goings-on from the XANA-gang.

"Good, because I'm getting ready to do something risky with William, Cassidy's ex," Ulrich said.

"_William? What are you and William doing together?"_ Jeremie asked._ "Are you guys _buddies _now?"_

"Nah, he's giving me a hand, like Cassidy said. I'll explain later." He didn't like what was happening to his girlfriend.

**-Back to the lab-**

"Yeah, well…"

"_Jeremie, we've got a big problem,"_ Aelita sounded worried over the intercom.

"_The Lyoko's Most Wanted Monster has just arrived!"_ Jeremie flinched as he heard Cassidy squeal.

"_But why? He's already gotten all the data XANA needed from me!"_ Aelita asked, both to Jeremie and to Cassidy. _"What could it want now?"_

"_I know why! He wants to possess you so you could delete the Forest Sector. Don't ask why. I think we should run,"_ Cassidy sounded a little timid.

"Timidity doesn't suit you well on Lyoko, you know, Cassidy," Jeremie chastised.

**-Lyoko-**

Aelita and Cassidy ran for their lives to one end of the sector, the jellyfish-like monster following them like prey.

**-Lab-**

"Ulrich, change in the program," Jeremie informed. "The tower's not going to get deactivated right away."

**-Forest-**

"I guess we can't count on you guys," Ulrich sighed and decided to go all the way with the plan. "How are you doing, zombies? Oh, I know I'm not welcome, but I _love_ strolling in the woods."

XANA-Jim pointed at him. He knew Ulrich and also knew that he too had to be dead. "After him!"

Several students, along with Mrs. Hertz, ran after him, the XANA symbols still in their eyes. He ran.

XANA-Jim looked back at the unconscious Yumi and then to the chase. He smiled, loving the thrill of another Lyoko Warrior chase, and ran with them, leaving the unconscious girl alone.

**-To Yumi-**

A hand gently came to her face. "Hey, Yumi," whispered a voice. It was William's. As much as she loved to hate William, now wasn't the time to do so. She came to.

"Yumi!" William whispered again.

**-Back to the on-Lyoko girls' dilemma-**

They ran to an edge and Cassidy let out an ear-splitting scream. Bad, dark memories started to haunt the poor psychic and she was starting to go into shock. Jumping, she climbed a tree, shaking like the first ever Lyoko leaf.

Aelita saw that, almost thought, _My hero,_ in fearful sarcasm, and looked back so she was face-to-membrane with the Schyphozoa.

"_Aelita, try to hit him with the energy fields,"_ Jeremie insisted, since Cassidy was still in Fearsville and not of much help at the moment.

Aelita raised her arm, energy field in her hand, and was about to strike when the jellyfish-like monster hit her arm away with one of its tentacles. It was time for its turn.

It started the process.

"_NO!__**!**__"_ Jeremie yelled. It had been two months ago when the unthinkable happened, only it happened in Sector 5 and Cassidy wasn't a coward.

**-Lab-**

"_Jeremie, what's going on?"_ Odd asked.

"The Schyphozoa has attacked Aelita," Jeremie was panicking. "And Cassidy went into shock, rendering her useless."

"_I thought that she got off that shock _months_ ago,"_ Odd said.

"She did, but she saw an edge and it scared her up a tree literally," he said. "HURRY, they need your help!"

**-To where Odd's at-**

"I'd love to help; only my new playmate doesn't seem to agree." Odd was hiding behind a tree whilst the Tarantula was firing its lasers repeatedly.

Cocking his arm, he tried four laser arrows at his enemy, but hid again when the creature returned fire. Sighing, he picked up a rock and threw it. It got hit, but Odd was able to swing behind the Tarantula and start running.

**-To where the two ladies are at-**

The Schyphozoa was almost done. The female cat warrior was still stuck up a tree and was refusing to come down.

**-Jeremie-**

"I don't get it. It looks like the Schyphozoa has implanted something into Aelita's memory," Jeremie was getting more and more panicky.

**-To Odd, the shocked, female, psychic cat, and Aelita-**

"Almost there, Jeremie," Odd told him and he was right.

He saw the scenes, firstly, Aelita in the clutches of the Schyphozoa, and then Cassidy in the tree. He cocked his arm and prepared to shoot at the jellyfish-like monster, but the monster set Aelita down.

Cassidy in the meantime was now trying to coax herself out of shock. _You idiot, you let Aelita get possessed. Nice going, _hero._ Remember what _she _said? She said that even the most shocked of warriors can overcome shock, now get down there NOW!_

She slowly got down to the forest floor. Odd, meanwhile, gasped a little in shock. Was their friend…dead?

"_Aelita is alive,"_ Jeremie was talking a mile a minute. _"I don't understand."_

"XANA had possessed her and it wouldn't have happened if it weren't for me going in shock! I'm sorry, Jeremie. I'm kicking myself for right now," Cassidy was a little ashamed.

"_Kick yourself later. Right now, do you have anything that may get rid of the possession?"_

The psychic cat thought on it whilst Odd walked over to waken their fallen friend.

"Aelita, you gotta wake up! It's me, Odd."

"I could try to do a force field bullet that is similar to the EMP bomb that you made. It won't blow away Aelita. I promise to the extent of my psychic powers here," Cassidy said. "I warn you, I can only do one shot per Lyoko mission."

"_Do it!"_

Cassidy shot her force-field bullet high up into the air. A few small nanoseconds later, a golden force field surrounded Odd, Cassidy, and Aelita, ridding the second latter of the possession the multi-agent system left behind.

"Now, what do we do?" Odd asked her.

"We wait to see if it worked," the psychic sighed. "That's all we can do for right now."

A few seconds later, Aelita came to. "Cassidy? Odd?"

"It's okay, Aelita, the possession is gone," Cassidy smiled, but what she didn't see was an array of tentacles surrounding her. A force pulled Cassidy away.

"ODD! AELITA!" She tried to get out of the jellyfish monster's grip, but the monster held her really tight.

**The possession process for Cassidy started.**

**-To William, Ulrich, and Yumi-**

Ulrich was now surrounded by the XANAfied crew. "Fifteen against one, I've been through worse."

Yumi was now back in the game and was now on the phone with Jeremie. "Jeremie. What's going on with the tower?" William was with her as backup. "I'm back and ready to go, but now it is Ulrich who's in trouble this time."

**-To the lab-**

"There is a really big chance of deactivating the tower, but Cassidy got caught by the Schyphozoa, but it's not taken her earth code as it did last time," Jeremie informed Yumi.

**-To the forest-**

"Ready to fight, William?" Yumi asked him.

William looked to the stick in his hand and offered an affirmative.

XANA-Jim gave Ulrich another charge of electricity and the latter groaned as a result of it.

"Yoo-hoo!" Yumi called as the XANA-gang raised their hands to shock Ulrich again. That got their attention. She waved to them and XANA-Jim said, "GET THAT GIRL!"

The Japanese teen girl ran around the tree as William jumped out, yelling, "BANZAI!" wielding his stick.

The four XANA-students looked to him as he used the stick to kick the four students. They all fell backwards and started to act like they were in a seizure.

"GO AFTER HIM RIGHT NOW!" XANA-Jim commanded XANA-Anaïs, XANA-Christophe, XANA-Emmanuel, XANA-Magali, and XANA-Hertz.

They went after William without question.

XANA-Jim heard a whistling and looked up. Yumi was in a tree with a stick. She jumped and attacked the XANAfied gym teacher, giving him a good kick to the head.

He looked back and was about to attack her again, when Yumi jumped over the barrage and started to attack again, but Jim ghosted through her attack and she fell onto Ulrich. They stared at each other for a few seconds.

Meanwhile, after all the XANA-students were down, it was William vs. XANA-Hertz.

Twirling his stick like a baton twirler **(A/N: No offense to Sissi. End A/N)**, he steadied it and ran to whack the XANAfied science teacher on the head. She caught it in her hands and fazed in and out.

"You taught us that wood doesn't conduct electricity," William used a witty banter.

XANA-Hertz then threw William.

**-To Lyoko-**

"_Can you hear me, Odd?"_ Jeremie asked. The possession of Cassidy was now complete. _"What's going on?"_

"I got a feeling that Cassidy is heading for the way tower," Odd yelled seeing Cassidy on her way to the way tower. "Aelita's almost done deactivating the other one."

"_Just what we needed,"_ Jeremie deadpanned.

The now-possessed psychic girl ran inside the tower and rose to the top platform at the same time Aelita did.

"_Cassidy?"_ Jeremie tried to get her to snap out of it.

At the same time Aelita entered Code: LYOKO, XANA-Cassidy entered Code: XANA.

All of a sudden, the Forest Sector started to disappear, tree by tree and land by land.

Cassidy fell out of the way tower and with a gasping thud, she realized what she had done.

"Odd and Jeremie, I'm so sorry," she wheezed.

"Right now, let's RUN FOR IT!" Odd took control fast. He picked Cassidy up and carried her as he ran from the approaching doom.

Aelita had now left the tower.

"_What's happening now?"_ Jeremie asked.

"THE SECTOR'S DISAPPEARING! REMATERIALIZE US!" Odd shouted at the top of his virtual lungs.

**-Yumi and Ulrich-**

The XANAfied teachers fainted in the middle of an electric attack, landing Ulrich and Yumi safe.

"Are you okay? William's not in great shape?" Ulrich asked.

Yumi grabbed her cell phone and called Jeremie. "Jeremie, did you manage to get the tower deactivated?"

"_Well, yes, but Cassidy inadvertly destroyed the sector,"_ Jeremie came in.

"WHAT?**!**" The two yelled.

**-Odd, Cassidy, and Aelita-**

"Jeremie!**!**" Odd yelled. The three were now plunging almost into the digital sea.

**-Jeremie-**

He worked on the program and said, "Materialization!"

**-Lyoko-**

Odd, Aelita, and Cassidy disappeared in a cloud of pixilated dust.

**-Scanner Room-**

The three came out of the scanners, a little shaky, but okay.

"Aelita, Odd, I'm sorry," Cassidy was shaking the worst.

"Well, for one thing, it was a pretty close call; otherwise, I wouldn't know what happened to us either," Odd smiled a little. "I'm sure Einstein or you will tell us!"

**-Let's roll on over to the forest with Yumi's class-**

The now-un-possessed students and faculty started to stir, dazed and confused.

Yumi was up on a small knoll, pointing at some moss. "Look over there! That moss must be the result of pollution!" She had her best acting voice on. "I love science field trips."

**-With William and Ulrich-**

Ulrich drug William into the study hall, snuck passed the sleeping Mr. Jameson, and placed him back in his spot. "Okay, naptime, and have nightmares. But don't you dare dream about Yumi."

William woke up as soon as he left. Dazed, he muttered, "Wow, what a nightmare!"

That woke Mr. Jameson up right away.

**-With Jeremie, Aelita, Cassidy, and Odd-**

"It's no use, the Forest Sector doesn't exist anymore," Jeremie said to the three.

Cassidy was crying over Odd's shoulder, muttering apologies repeatedly to the point of insanity, almost singing the apologies to the tune of "Good Morning" from Singing in the Rain. **(A/N: I love that movie)**

"XANA has totally wiped it off the map, and tried to use Aelita, but used you, Cassidy!"

"He tricked me into a false sense of security," Cassidy hiccupped.

"He launched an attack just to get you two on Lyoko," Jeremie continued.

"But why would he do that?" Odd asked.

"If the surface sectors disappear, we won't be able to get to Sector 5 anymore!"

"You mean that XANA is going to destroy all the Sectors?"

"Sure is," Jeremie said. "If only I can find a way to materialize you guys directly into Sector 5. Looks like I have plenty of work ahead." He then titled his head a little. "Well it's a good thing I'm not going to be elected class rep."

Cassidy instantly cheered up. "'Told you to take a slice of humble pie before we got here. Good thing you did."

"How do you know that?" Odd asked, curiously.

"Isn't it obvious?" Cassidy smirked.

"We're all going to vote for you!" Jeremie smiled.

**-The next day-**

"And your newly-elected class representative is…Odd Della Robbia," Mr. Fumet announced.

Odd made his way through the tables as the class cheered him on.

As soon as he made his way to the front, everyone began to crowd him, and Cassidy planted a kiss on his cheek. "Well done, novio."

**A/N: Okay, 50 points and a spoiler if you correctly translate all the Spanish words into English. And I'll be checking for the winner.**


	33. Cassidy, Odd, and Aelita steal the show!

**Okay, Aelita gets a chapter. Cool. :)**

**I don't own her or Code Lyoko. I only own the plot and Cassidy ONLY. :)**

**-In Aelita's daydream-**

Franz Hopper and Aelita ran to the factory from the sewers and rushed down to the Lab.

"But where are we?" she looked around curiously and cautiously.

"In my Laboratory. Come on," Franz told her.

"Where?"

"To a world where we would be safe! You and I…forever," He took her to the scanners. "See you in a minute, honey."

"See you in a minute, Daddy!" Aelita said.

The scanner doors closed.

**-Lyoko's Forest Sector-**

Aelita landed on the land and looked around for her father. "Daddy? Daddy, where are you?"

"Here I am, Aelita," Franz Hopper came down from multiple glowing yellowish-hue spheres.

"Daddy!" Aelita looked at her father's form.

"I can't materialize myself into human form yet as you can, Aelita. I still have more work to do on Lyoko. This world needs to develop more." She held onto one of his spheres as if he had a hand.

She then heard the scuttling of Kankrelats. "Daddy, there are some strange-looking creatures over there."

The five started to fire as Franz ordered, "RUN, AELITA, RUN!"

Panicking, she rushed into the nearest tower. "Daddy!"

The beeping of three rings was a reassuring sign.

**-Aw, man, back to reality already? : (-**

Aelita's pen hit the table as Mr. Fumet called her out.

Cassidy, who was guest passing for the day in a promise to make up the math test she would miss, stood up and got in between her roommate and her teacher. "Sorry, sir. Aelita had a rough dream again last night. It made her stay up all night."

Luckily, he believed the female psychic and went on with the lesson. "And in…" something…"mythology, natural disaster brings about the end of Norse gods' world, scorching the earth for a new, peaceful world can arise from the ashes called 'Ragnarok'."

"Say one thing about rock music being related to this lesson, and estamos rompiendo nuestra relación!" Cassidy hissed under her breath to Odd.

**-After class-**

"I can't believe you didn't allow me to say my joke!" Odd said to Cassidy walking to the bench.

"You'll thank me one day for this, Odd. You're lucky you didn't get thrown out of class for the first time this school year," Cassidy's eyes turned into a shade of copper.

"How was history class?" Yumi asked the gang.

"Who cares, it's history, now," Ulrich cracked a little joke. Cassidy chuckled a little, but noticed Aelita. She was still a little ashamed about what happened in history class.

A scathing, nails-on-chalkboard voice directed the gang's attention. "Well, Ms. Einstein, better get a good-night's sleep. A super-brain like yours needs a little shut-eye. And most of us aren't plagued by nightmares."

"Of course, you don't have that problem, Sissi," Odd called out from across the courtyard. "'Cause your brain's in your feet."

Cassidy laughed uproariously. "Good one, Odd. That's better than the frogs' legs joke you told when we were both new."

Sissi stopped as the two started guffawing. "Isn't Odd a riot? Look who has the nerve to talk about my feet, especially after Heidi Klinger told me about _yours_."

Odd stopped laughing as well as the female psychic. "What does she mean by that?"

"Don't worry, Odd. I've got a solution that'll cool all of this down," Cassidy smiled.

The rest of the group showed looks of worry. After what happened to the couple the last school year, everyone was worried.

She winked. "I'm not going to do 'it', guys. I have something in my suitcase from home that might be the end of Odd's foot woes."

Cassidy grabbed Odd's hand and raced him to her dorm. She whipped out her black suitcase and unzipped the zipper. "I know I put it in here," she said as she dived into her bag. She searched and searched until… "Aha! Here we go." She came out and gave Odd some Johnson & Johnson lotion. "It reminds me of home but now it's yours. Just a thin layer every night, and the odor should disappear."

Odd smiled. "You are clever, you know that, Cassidy?"

"I'm told that from time to time," she nodded.

**-Back to Aelita's reverie-**

Inside the tower, Franz visited his daughter. "Aelita."

"Daddy?" Aelita's voice was so young.

"Aelita, I have to make contact with XANA. This way we can live in peace with him," Franz said.

She stood up. "Who is XANA?"

"A multi-agent computer program I created that has achieved self-awareness and autonomy and it's trying to eliminate us now."

"But why, Daddy?"

But Franz disappeared from sight, leaving Aelita alone in the tower.

"Daddy?"

"Whatever you do, don't leave this tower!"

"Daddy? Daddy! Daddy!" Aelita cried out.

**-Back to reality for the second time this chapter-**

Aelita hadn't eaten a single bite, and that worried Jeremie. "Aelita! Hey, what's the matter?" He placed a hand on her arm. "Is anything wrong?"

Cassidy kept eating. She did not want to interrupt this time and she had missed breakfast due to PE.

"No, I—I—I was daydreaming I guess," Aelita sounded a little out of sorts.

Odd came up with his plate. **(A/N: He went to his room to apply Cassidy's treatment, that's the reason why he came up this late)** "Hey, guys! No more feet nightmare. Call me Odorless Odd." He had a smile on his face and bent down to whisper in Cassidy's ear, "Gracias señorita."

She smiled and blushed. "De nada, Odd."

Ulrich took a bite from his apple. "How'd you manage that?"

"You'll find out tonight," Odd smiled. "It's a surprise."

Ulrich gulped down a bit of apple.

Yumi stood up. "Well, I'll let you kick your foot problem around a little. I have a math test." She walked off with her tray and as soon as she did that, Odd slid his tray next to his good buddy, took her spot, and started devouring his spaghetti like it was the last meal on Earth.

"Jeremie, do you…do you think my father's still alive?" Aelita asked him.

"I told you, Aelita, your father's still out there on Lyoko somewhere…alive," Cassidy's eyes grew white, but Odd smacked her right away, returning her to normal in a flash.

"Do you think it's possible to rematerialize him?" Aelita asked the two.

"It's a possibility that I think of, and it may be so, Aelita," Cassidy's powers started to urge her on, making her eyes go white again. The wise-cracker of the group smacked her again, once again, deterring her powers from hitting terremoto central.

"He managed to escape when XANA captured him the first time," she had so much hope in her heart and Cassidy's words were egging this hope on. "Why not a second time?"

"He's in evasion mode, meaning that he's trying to avoid XANA at every turn. He never did die, Aelita. He's still out there, just as spherical, just as fatherly." The pink-haired girl nodded at that.

"Impossible," interjected Jeremie, "I checked every inch of Lyoko, and there isn't the slightest sign of him."

"So!" Cassidy stood up abruptly and glared at the genius. This was the worst he had seen the female cat-warrior so angry since the time he didn't believe that his sweetheart was dying. "That doesn't mean we should give up hope. Aelita would love to see her father again someday. My powers are usually top-notch, and today they are. They tell me that Franz Stones—" She said Stones because she didn't want to slip on identity inside the cafeteria—"is somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean!" The reason for the words Atlantic Ocean was for the pact reason. "Don't bring Aelita down!"

She ran out of the cafeteria, with Odd and Aelita chasing at her heels, whilst Jeremie and Ulrich sat there, stunned. Ulrich dropped his apple on his tray and gulped again.

Cassidy stayed thirty feet ahead of Aelita and Odd as they neared the Hermitage.

**-Aelita's reveries will play on as the above happens-**

After a long time in the tower, Aelita ran outside the tower, worried. "Daddy! Daddy! I'm coming, Daddy." She saw that her father was in a fire-fight with three Hornets. "DADDY!" she cried, fear in her eyes.

"NO, Aelita, get back to safety, in the tower!" Franz said.

Aelita shook her head. She couldn't bear to leave him.

"You possess the keys to Lyoko, Aelita! XANA must never get his hands on them, do you understand?" He loved her with his heart, and he couldn't bear to lose her like he did Antea, his wife. "It's over, Aelita. XANA is too powerful; he's become a threat to all mankind. I've got to shut down the supercomputer."

She did as she was told, and once back inside, Franz found his retreat too.

"But does that mean we'll die?" Aelita asked in worry.

"No, but you mustn't forget me…_ever_. Never forget, Aelita," Franz placed his words down.

**-Back to reality for the last time-**

"Oh, God, I'm an idiot!" Cassidy yelled as she paced the living room. "Yelling at Jeremie again for the _third_ time?**!** What's going on with me?**!**"

"Maybe your time of month is here," Odd told her.

Aelita smacked his arm. "Why do you say that?"

"He has five sisters as does my grandpa on my mother's side," Cassidy was almost on the verge of pulling her brown hair out.

"Our good buddy, Einstein, here, may be a computer whiz, but diplomatically he's a—a—"

"A little tactless at times, but he loves Aelita and I know it," she started to calm down a little, but then felt a little caged in. She couldn't hold it in any longer. "Odd, Aelita, let's go to Sector 5 together, just to try to find proof that Franz Hopper, your father, Aelita, is alive somewhere. You can run the transfers and we could look for him through use of that area."

"That may not be too easy," Odd said. "You heard what Jeremie said. He's not very interested to help."

That caged Cassidy even further.

Aelita liked the plan Cassidy was setting in. "So, we don't need Jeremie, do we?" her voice cracked at the word we but she was fine.

Odd's eyebrows shot up through the roof to a satellite somewhere in outer space. "We?**!**"

"Just us, you, Cassidy, and me. Okay, Odd?" Aelita's little yang side was operating on a steady motor.

The cat girl warrior felt immediately un-caged.

His hand went to his mouth, holding back a little "Jeremie will kill us" groan.

**-In the Library-**

Jeremie was still not off the shock of Cassidy's nerve. He flipped through his Albert Einstein autobiography and tried to find words to speak. He opened his mouth, gathering enough courage, and said, "Hey, Ulrich, do you think I was a little outspoken to Cassidy?"

"What do you think?" Ulrich asked him. "It wasn't until we couldn't find the way to alleviate her powers to accept them. Better talk to her."

"NO!" Interrupted a gruff voice. "You shouldn't talk to anyone!"

Ulrich grabbed some advice from Cassidy last night, albeit weirdly. _Now's the time to act._

"You see Jim. We were meaning to talk to Cassidy after Study Hall since she had a bit of an argument with Jeremie," Ulrich said politely. **(A/N: That was a bit weird since I'm not good at placing myself in Ulrich's shoes, but if you don't think so, review after this chapter)**

Jim walked off.

"This is awful! Cassidy must really hate me, huh?"

"No, she doesn't. Hey, I bet she's running around looking for you to blabbermouth an apology, right now," Ulrich walked his fingers across the table.

**-Wrong, Ulrich-**

Aelita and Odd swung down the ropes while Cassidy ran down the ramp, rushing to the elevator as the two were.

They all took the lift down as Odd had a flashback.

**FLASHBACK #8**

_Odd was in the desert region in an awkward position next to a rock. His ninja suit wasn't there, but Cassidy's cat costume was._

"He's busy clowning around somewhere,"_ Jeremie's voice sounded from the entire region._

**END OF FLASHBACK**

"Weird," whispered Odd.

"Another flashback?" Aelita asked while the lift was carrying them down.

"Yeah, this time, I'm in Cassidy's costume on Lyoko's Desert Region, in a strange position, and Jeremie said that I was busy clowning around somewhere," Odd explained.

"That's a little illogical, since our costumes never decide to switch owners," Cassidy semi-smirked. "That's the only flaw I can find, Odd."

**-To Yumi's class-**

William walked into the classroom as Yumi was about to take her seat. "Hey, William, did you study hard?"

"Yep. Just ask me anything you want about American history!" William was confident.

That elicited a little laugh from Yumi. Her friend, Cassidy was a natural, since America was her native land. But she said, "Uh, that's great, but, uh, the test is in _math_."

Those words made William falter. He didn't study his math at all, thinking that he had an American history test instead of a math test.

**-Back to the three-**

Aelita started up the transfer. "Okay, I'll launch the procedure, which will automatically virtualize us in the Desert Sector. As soon as we materialize, we'll have one minute to get in sync with the Transporter."

"Wow! You know how to do all that?" Odd asked.

"Aelita is among the geniuses in this group, so of _course_ she knows how to do all that," Cassidy smiled.

"Piece of cake," Aelita sweetly said.

Cassidy took the ladder down to the scanner room while Aelita and Odd took the elevator.

Soon the three of them were on Lyoko.

**-Back to Ulrich and Jeremie-**

Jeremie heard his laptop beep and saw that there was…

"Oh, no, an activated tower in the Mountain Sector," Jeremie whispered.

He closed his laptop. "Okay, we're out of here. We can beat XANA if we act fast."

"Top plan?" Ulrich asked.

When Jeremie nodded and put his fingers in his ears, the samurai boy stood up and yelled, "I'm telling ya, the recipe calls for eggs, vinegar, whipped cream, a little wheat germ, and _peanut_."

After, Jeremie inputted _his_ two-pennies, "And I say you gotta use _hazelnut_."

"YOU DON'T!" he bombarded.

"You DO!" Jeremie tried to sound superior to his friend.

Ulrich pointed his index finger behind him, cutting to the negative. Jeremie turned around to see Jim, and tried to act surprised.

"Oh, we're not, by any chance, speaking too loud, are we, Jim?" the samurai sounded smooth.

"I want you two out of here immediately. Now, go on, out of my sight, ya hear?"

The two tried to act as if they were guilty of committing a crime, and walked out.

Ulrich muttered, "That was fácil."

Jeremie sounded his affirmative.

Later, as they were running out in the forest, Jeremie got a little curious, "Hey, Ulrich, what was that recipe for anyway? It sounds totally gross."

"It's one of Odd's concoctions," Ulrich said after panting a little.

**-To Yumi's math test-**

Yumi was doing well on her test when her phone buzzed like a racecar driver's engine. She picked it up. "Hello?"

A few seconds later, she put the test down on Mrs. Mayer's desk. The teacher was concerned. "Are you finished already?" But Yumi was already out the door before the last word got in edgewise. "Yumi!"

**-To the two boys-**

"Yumi's on her way!" Ulrich pulled off the manhole cover.

"I can't seem to reach Cassidy or Aelita," Jeremie tried the number. "Do you think the psychic's still mad at me?"

He closed the manhole over the sewer after Ulrich went in.

**-Lyoko-**

The three ran to the edge and stopped. Odd looked around. "I hope we didn't miss our bus!"

"If we did, perdemos el bus," Cassidy muttered in pure Spanish. But she knew the answer through her powers.

"There!" Aelita pointed.

The Transporter came up and whisked them away to Sector 5.

**-Yumi-**

Yumi jumped the stairs and got to the factory using the boiler room route.

**-At the factory-**

The elevator doors opened to admit Jeremie and Ulrich. The genius walked up to the chair and smelled something almost strangely sweet. "Hey, do you smell that?" When the samurai shook his head, he continued, "It's weird, because it smells as if Odd has been here."

"Forget it, Jeremie," Ulrich shrugged. "Odd hasn't been here since yesterday. His feet smell, but not twenty-four hours later."

"Still, it's…bizarre," Jeremie put in the communicator in his ear.

**-Yumi-**

She ground against the metal piping and made her way to the sewer entry way to the factory with her skateboard.

**-Sector 5-**

Odd, Aelita, and Cassidy made it to the Arena of Sector 5. Cassidy shivered. "Ooh."

"What?" Odd looked to her.

"My senses tell me…" she tried to figure out tact but couldn't, "…never mind. But it's telling me something!"

The walls opened to them while Odd and Cassidy had the conversation. "Let's go," Aelita said.

They ran to the Core Zone. Cassidy shivered a little more, but it was in excitement.

**-To Ulrich and Jeremie-**

They two tried Cassidy's, Odd's, and Aelita's cell phone numbers. "Still nothing from Aelita," Jeremie said, tapping his knee, "Cassidy, or Odd."

"Forget it," Ulrich said. "Looks as if Aelita and Odd are angry at you, too."

"Because of his smelly feet? That's dumb! Odd is losing his sense of humor," Jeremie groaned a little. "Aelita has the right to be mad at me though."

Yumi came in from the elevator. "I hope this isn't a false alarm. I had to race through my exam!"

"It's real, alright. I'm sending you and Ulrich in right now. The others will join you just as soon as I can get a hold of them," Jeremie gave the two lovebirds the signal and the two were soon in the Mountain Sector, where they were bombarded by Hornets the instant they landed.

The two unsheathed their weapons and went back to back with each other. "Nice one Jeremie, you materialized us in the middle of an air-show."

"_Sorry, you guys, but more surprises are on the way!"_ Jeremie told them. _"XANA's called up his heavy artillery. I'll materialize your vehicles."_

Ulrich deflected a few lasers with his katana. "Better hurry!"

Yumi pointed in front of her. "Look! Tarantulas!"

The samurai, with a cry of "Super Sprint" charged into battle. He deflected a laser from one Hornet, and started to block its shots. Yumi rushed in to join him and used one of her fans to get rid of two of them. She back-flipped to the back and he blocked the Tarantulas' laser fire.

The vehicles came in no time. "About time," Ulrich hopped on the OverBike while Yumi went on the OverWing and they zipped away.

**-Back in the Lab-**

Jeremie tried Aelita's number again. "Come on, Aelita. You've helped Cassidy enough, now pick up!"

**-To where Aelita is at-**

Aelita, Cassidy, and Odd ran into the Core Zone room, the first latter surging with excitement. She was ready.

Aelita spotted the key mechanism. "Look! The key—it's up there."

Odd and Cassidy looked too.

"This is almost _too_ easy," Odd said, and turned to his novia. "Are you ready to sink your claws in this one, Cassidy?"

"That's new. I've never heard that one before," Cassidy cocked her head to one side. "Yes, I am ready."

So she turned her tube into a gun and started her ascent. "And Odd and Aelita, when the Creepers arrive, give 'em all you got!"

"Roger, señorita," Odd saluted.

The Creepers arrived as Cassidy predicted. Aelita made the first move. "Energy field!" She deployed one and hit one on a rebound.

"Good job, Aelita," Cassidy smiled. "Odd, hit the one in front of you!"

Odd did and it disintegrated.

Two of them regrouped and started roaring to each other as if they were having an easily unpleasant conversation.

"Bizarre," Aelita commented as Odd readied for another shot.

Then two more came.

"You'd think they were surprised to see us!" Aelita continued.

"And Jeremie will be surprised, too, but that don't matter right now," Cassidy yelled as she started to jump more.

"Sorry! We're not disturbing you, are we?" Odd said to the Creepers, then shot a few more times.

Two more Creepers were out. Then two more Creepers came in.

"Oh, holy Jeeps," Cassidy groaned, shooting her gun at one of them with her tail.

**-With Ulrich and Yumi-**

Yumi and Ulrich found the tower using their vehicles. "I see the tower."

"So do I, but I also see a welcoming committee," Yumi said.

Along the ground, there were two Bloks, looking for a fight.

"Did you get hold Odd, Cassidy, and Aelita," Ulrich asked.

"_Not a word. I'll try again. Stay in position for now, and don't get devirtualized,"_ Jeremie told the two.

"We'll try," Ulrich muttered.

**-Back to Odd, Aelita, and Cassidy-**

Cassidy worked to get to the key mechanism, a few times narrowly avoiding the fray below. She shot at one Creeper about to fire at her. "If I devirtualized now, Jeremie's going to wonder about Odd and Aelita," she whispered to herself. "Plus he would read me the 30,000 word Riot Act about how we should not conduct Lyoko missions without supervision and permission. Man that would be a real big shock and surprise."

She kept jumping up and up to get to the button. When she was next to it, she said, "Aelita, Odd, run."

She reached out, jumped, and hit the mechanism, stopping the countdown.

Landing, Cassidy met up with Odd and Aelita and ran with them to the elevator room.

**-Jeremie-**

All of a sudden, a screen came up, surprising Jeremie. "Huh? What is going on around here?"

Typing on the computer at more than 50 words a minute he was instantly surprised. "Holosphere system online?" Then he saw what looked to be two green arrows and one yellow one. That angered Jeremie a little. "I don't _believe_ this! They're already there, _the traitors!_"

**-Aelita, Odd, and Cassidy-**

"_Aelita, Cassidy, Odd, I know you're there!"_ Jeremie sounded from Sector 5.

Aelita clenched a fist.

"_For your information, while you're out there having a ball, XANA happens to be attacking…"_

"I knew that, but we…" Cassidy whispered to Aelita and Odd, but not to Jeremie.

"…_Ulrich and Yumi are already on the spot,"_ Jeremie told them.

"What do we do now, Cassidy and Aelita?" Odd knew that they all were caught.

"Let's go," Aelita and Cassidy chorused together as the three jumped into the elevator.

"_As soon as you get to the Dome, I'll program two vehicles and then I'll open up a tunnel. The activated tower is in the Mountain Sector, okay? Now get going!"_ Jeremie came on.

Cassidy was still reverberating with excitement, but she didn't know why.

They went up to the Dome and the OverWing and OverBoard were there in no time. Odd and Aelita went together on the OverBoard while Cassidy took the OverWing.

While they were in the "air" Aelita noticed something. Cassidy noticed it too. "Look, Odd."

Odd saw three Mantas near the entrance of the Core. "They're not attacking, it must be a game!"

"Jeremie, we just spotted some flying Mantas in the south pole of the Dome. They seem to be guarding the entrance!" Aelita told Jeremie.

"_Now that is not a good sign…Hold on. I'll check it out,"_ Jeremie said.

Cassidy gasped. "IT'S THE CORE! XANA's attacking it!" Her eyes were now sepia brown. "Jeremie's right. It's not a good sign."

"_You were right! The tower in the Mountain Sector was just a diversion!"_

"Let's get the core, then we'll worry about the tower and Franz Hopper later," Cassidy promised.

"Okay, we're on it!" Odd told him and her.

**-Yumi and Ulrich-**

Yumi avoided two lasers, whipped out her fans and used them to defend herself.

Ulrich lost his sword when a Blok shot it out of his hand.

She threw one and destroyed the one on her left, then, seeing him without a sword, telekinetically gave him his sword, whereas he grabbed and stabbed the one on his right. "IMPACT!"

After it was destroyed, Ulrich took the time to compliment. "Your telekinesis thing is really cool."

"_Ulrich, Yumi! Change of plans! Listen up. Odd, Cassidy, and Aelita are in Sector 5. You gotta get over there. They need some help."_

That confused Ulrich. "What? What's going on?"

"_I'll tell you all about it later, but for now, get going!"_

**-Sector 5-**

Laser fire overtook the three Lyoko warriors. Apparently Odd said that they should barge their way through. "Odd, it's suicide!"

"You're kidding? This is a snap, Aelita." Odd maneuvered his way from the Mantas.

**-Back to Yumi and Ulrich-**

"XANA really outsmarted us. While we were busy in the Mountain Sector, he was free to attack the Core of Lyoko!" Yumi said.

"_Yeah but he didn't count on three scanner stowaways already being in Sector 5…fortunately,"_ Jeremie told the two.

"So you're not mad then?" Ulrich was half-hopeful, half-not.

"_Not a chance. In fact, as soon as they get here, they'll each receive a big kiss,"_ Jeremie said sarcastically.

**-Back to Aelita, Odd, and Cassidy-**

Two Mantas were destroyed, one by laser arrow, the other by bullet.

**-Back to Ulrich and Yumi-**

Ulrich and Yumi neared the edge of the Mountain Sector.

"_Are you at the extreme edge of the sector?"_ Jeremie asked.

"Sir, yes, sir," saluted Ulrich, standing by with Yumi.

"_Okay, then I'll enter the code SCIPIO."_

Soon the Transporter was present and whisked the two warriors to their destination.

**-To Odd and the girls-**

Odd got hit on his hand. "These guys are tough to get a handle on."

"You know you could throw one of your shoes **(A/N: Yes, Odd has shoes to accompany his ninja costume. They just aren't mentioned much. End A/N)** at them," Aelita suggested, throwing an energy field at the last one, and hitting it.

"Very funny, I can do better than that. LASER ARROW!" Odd called, but something shot him off balance.

"Odd," Aelita cried.

But Odd devirtualized before Cassidy could think to save him.

**-In the scanner room-**

Odd fainted after he got out of the scanner.

**-Back to the arena-**

Yumi and Ulrich were dropped off and they waited for the walls to open up for them.

"_Hurry up! Cassidy and Aelita are all alone!"_ Jeremie told them.

The two ran as soon as the walls opened.

**-Back with Cassidy and Aelita-**

Cassidy and Aelita entered into the Core as quickly as they could.

**-Lab-**

"And the first shield layer of the Core of Lyoko has just given away!" He panicked.

**-Aelita and Cassidy-**

They saw three Mantas trying to destroy the Core's second shield layer.

"_Aelita! Cassidy! Where are you?"_ Jeremie asked.

"In trouble," Aelita said.

Cassidy cocked her .22 ultra-rifle. "This looks like a job for three girls and a boy since we lost Odd in battle."

They rushed up the stairs as fast as they could. Aelita aimed an energy field at a Creeper and destroyed it. Cassidy took out one of the Mantas using her ultra-rifle.

That got the enemies' attentions. The last Mantas swooped down to the two, unfriendly.

Aelita used two energy fields as a shield while the second girl was pounding another two Creepers.

"_Hang on, girls. Ulrich and Yumi are on their way!"_

"I know that is true," the psychic cat girl was power plowing away. "But I also know that you will kill Odd, Aelita, and I as soon as Aelita and I hit Earth."

"_No…what gives you that impression?"_ she could hear a cunning smirk in the question.

"Because you told Ulrich and Yumi that you would kiss us for being stowaways."

There was a sound of a palm hitting forehead. _"Your psychic powers are so stubborn to you."_

"I don't spoil them every day. I hardly spoil them at all!"

Soon Ulrich and Yumi joined the two. Yumi turned to Cassidy first. "You have a lot of explaining to do when we get home."

"I know that, Yumi. I should've let Odd and Aelita go and then blurt my predictions to you guys, spoiling Odd and Aelita's plan. But since I yelled at Jeremie, I became a tag-along."

Ulrich stabbed a Creeper through its "chest" cavity, watched it explode, and then deflected another two shots from two more of its kind, killing them in the process.

Then he raced up to Aelita, Yumi, and Cassidy's level using his Super Sprint, stabbed the Manta through the "heart", and turned to them. "Did we miss much of the show?"

"No, just the opening act," Aelita smiled.

A roar caught their attention. "My saber," Ulrich groaned as they were cornered by a Creeper.

Cassidy raised her ultra-rifle and shot the creature.

"_Nice one, everybody. Aelita, you know that you still have a tower to deactivate. But if you want to stop at the terminal first to collect some new data on Franz Hopper, I mean…if you want to…"_ Jeremie was getting nervous.

Aelita thought on the subject and shrugged a bit, smiling. "Yeah…why not?"

**-Later that night-**

Ulrich and Odd were in their dorm room. The samurai warrior was getting curious and suspicious. "Okay, then, so what's this miracle cure Cassidy gave you?"

"Hold on. I did tell you it's a surprise," Odd smiled. "Now close your eyes, Ulrich."

"I'd rather close my nose, I think," the boy joked.

The jokester of the group put on some of Cassidy's solution.

A few seconds later, Ulrich sniffed and whiffed something sweet-smelling. "Whoa! Is that the solution that Cassidy gave you?" he asked, liking some of the smell.

Kiwi sniffed, too, but ignored it.

"It's lotion. Very effective, huh? Now my feet don't smell at all," Odd smiled.

"That's great!" Ulrich smiled. "Now we can get some peace at night."

**-With Jeremie, Aelita, and Cassidy-**

Jeremie was typing away at the new data that Aelita had found. "Any luck?" Aelita asked.

"Just wait," her roommate soothed. "Jeremie will, in a few minutes, have the same answer I do."

Jeremie stopped his typing and then did some clicking around. "No…nothing."

"Soon there'll be something." Cassidy's eyes clouded a little, and then came back to regular color.

He did some more clicking with his mouse as the pink-haired girl paced around. Picking up something, he said, "Hey, what's that?"

"What have you found?" she asked.

"A DNA code sequence of Franz Hopper!" the brown-haired girl smiled.

"You were right again, Cassidy and Aelita," Jeremie complimented.

"My father might be alive somewhere on Lyoko!" the pink-haired girl turned to the brown-haired one as the two girls locked shocked eyes with each other.


	34. Whoa! There's a Pretender in our midst

**Ah…a Pretender is in our midst, eh? Let the Lyoko Warriors handle it.**

**Code Lyoko is not mine. Cassidy and the plot are mine.**

**-On top of a park street-lamp-**

A crow landed on top of a park street-lamp, not knowing that **XANA was going to play.**

**He possessed the bird as it let out a squawk.**

**-Jeremie's room-**

The super-scan showed an activated tower.

**-In the boys' bathroom-**

The three Lyoko Warrior men were in there, brushing their teeth. Odd and Ulrich were doing Lyoko scores.

"Forget it, Ulrich," Odd said. "Your saber may have some class, but, compared to my laser arrows, your monster count is way behind mine."

"Oh, yeah, I bet you forgot that my saber saved your life from a quick game over from last time," Ulrich said.

"Don't forget Cassidy's record," Odd sighed with an air of reverie. "87 Megatanks from _one_ warrior; now that's what I call a record." He smiled, putting his toothbrush in his mouth to brush his teeth once more.

"Only because you're boyfriend-girlfriend!" Ulrich bantered seriously.

Odd's smile faded and his eyebrows shot up in worry. "How did you know that?"

"I found a translator on the web and found what those words meant that you and Cassidy had been talking in Spanish for. I can't believe that you are dating her behind Sam's back!" Ulrich scolded.

"Sam knows, Ulrich. We talked it through." Odd was still flabbergasted.

Jeremie removed his toothbrush from his mouth. "You know what? I may have a little statistics program that I'm using to record your performances on Lyoko for the past few weeks. So tonight, if you want, we could compare and see who's best, okay?"

"That's great, I love stats! Finally, I have proof of my superiority, but in any event, I've got something that you'll never have, good buddy, and that's 'style'." Odd twirled his toothbrush around in the direction of Ulrich.

"Style, my friend? Doesn't impress a Megatank," his samurai buddy retorted calmly.

Nicholas and Hervé happened to walk by. "Hey, what's all this about a Megatank, huh? You talking about a videogame?"

Odd and Ulrich knew that they'd been caught. But Odd, being Odd, had a good excuse to get out of that one. "Yeah, 'Teddy Bear Heaven'—way too complicated for you!"

"You're funny, Della Robbia," Hervé sarcastically said as the two left.

Johnny came in. "Um…Ulrich, have you got a minute? Can I talk to you in private?"

Ulrich cocked a brow.

**-In his and Odd's room-**

Ulrich opened his closet. "I'm listening."

"Uh, well, you're um…Cassidy's best friend, aren't you?" Johnny was sitting on the bed.

"Yeah, I am friends with her," Ulrich kept his cool around him.

"Um…um…what I wanna say um…is that…when I see Cassidy…I'm…well, I'd like to…you remember the episode of _Hospital of Horrors_ that was on last week?" the poor boy was so nervous.

"Huh? You'd like to give Cassidy a transfusion of French poodle's blood?" Then Ulrich shuddered because he knew that Cassidy would probably freak about that.

"No, no, I mean at the end—what happens between Stacy and Dr. Shrank."

"Listen, I don't remember what happened at the end, and I don't know what you're talking about," Ulrich put on his shirt and closed his closet. "And they've got pancakes for breakfast, so, hurry up, will ya?"

He walked out of the room.

**-Later-**

Ulrich walked down the stairs to his awaiting friends.

"You look happy, for a change!" Odd noted the smile on his friend's face. "What's going on? What did Johnny want?"

"Just to talk. He's totally flipped out over Cassidy," Ulrich got down to the bottom step.

"That's adorable," Aelita warmly said, "so what did you tell him?"

"You didn't let him down gently without laughing at him?" Jeremie put in his two-cents.

"You kidding? I wasn't going to pass this up. I told him to follow her twenty-four hours every day non-stop," Ulrich shrugged with a smile.

"That wasn't very cool, Ulrich. Cassidy hates to be followed around. She still has that kidnapping fear after what happened last time," Aelita scolded. "She'd probably tell him to get lost!"

"So what if she does," Ulrich asked.

"You know, Ulrich, you can be a real jerk sometimes," Jeremie came in.

"Hey, it's just a little hazing. I got hazed when I was in seventh grade," Ulrich's smile was now a frown.

"Hazing, huh? Sounds more like selfishness to me," Odd put in and walked off. "I don't believe it. You flip out even if Kiwi looks at Yumi."

"Hey, don't forget that Yumi and I are boyfriend-girlfriend now," he retorted.

**-Meanwhile-**

Cassidy and Yumi looked up from studying in the library for an English project to find that a crow had landed on the outside window sill. Cassidy found it a bit suspicious, but then… "Hi, Cassidy." She looked to see Johnny.

"Hi, Johnny," she whispered. _Let me guess…Ulrich. Oh, well, I don't blame him. Johnny's flipped out over me._ She sighed in her thoughts as if a little saddened.

"'Mind if I sit down next to you for a second, Cassidy?" Johnny asked. "It's really nice to see you."

"Not at all, Johnny boy!" she used her almost-correct Southern accent. "And it's nice to see you, too."

"You know, I love to read, too," he smiled, noticing her _Outsiders_ book by S. E. Hinton.

"It's really great. Two-Bit is awesome," Cassidy smirked.

"I read all kinds of stuff—books, magazines, comics—do you like comics?" he asked.

"Yes, I do," Cassidy nodded. "Only _X-Men_ comics though."

"I like mangas best. What about you?" Johnny kept staring at her. "I bet you know some great ones. Can you recommend any of them to me?"

"Yes, _Millennium Snow_ is a good one," she smiled. _Oh, the joys of having a little tag-along. What fun!_

"We're going to lunch," Yumi stood up and left, Cassidy coming too, and Johnny at their heels.

"I'll go with you two," Johnny said.

**-Lunch-**

Cassidy grabbed a bowl of macaroni and cheese. "I like the idea of self-service, don't you?" Johnny asked her, grabbing the same thing too.

"It's better than nothing, I guess," she smiled.

She then put a plate of chicken on her tray.

"I love chicken, too. They're good for…"

"Fascinating, but we better not hold up the line," Cassidy told her little follower.

**-What's Odd talking about, I wonder-**

"Hey, don't forget that in Sector 5, I took out at least _three_ flying Mantas in a matter of seconds," Odd cut into his steak.

"I don't trust your count. You stink in math. I prefer Jeremie's stats," Ulrich retorted as Yumi, Cassidy, and Johnny came up the way.

"Where's your table?" Johnny asked. "I'd really like to sit with you."

"Right here," Cassidy smiled.

That surprised the gang minus Ulrich. Cassidy would rather not get followed around than to be that way.

"What?" Cassidy asked her shocked friends. "It's not as if I skipped PE obsessively." She shrugged, seeing that her friends weren't issuing off an answer, went off to get a glass of tea.

"How's it going, Johnny?" Ulrich said.

"I'm not sure, but I have the feeling that she likes what I like," he smiled. "It doesn't seem that I'm getting on her nerves by following her."

Ulrich put a hand on his shoulder. "You know how girls are like. Don't let it get you down, yet, buddy. Now when she gets to the gym, ask her for all kinds of advice."

"Okay…" Johnny said, a tad wary.

The older boy earned little glares from Jeremie, Aelita, Odd, and Yumi.

Cassidy came back with the pitcher of tea. "Good idea!" Johnny smiled. "May I have some tea?"

She smiled. "Yes, you may!" And she poured the tea in his cup as she did hers.

She still winked at Ulrich, as if she was saying _I know what you are up to, Mister. And, quite frankly, I like it._

**-After the ninth grader's history test-**

"I think I got question two right. I said that China stretched over the large river valleys of Eastern Asia, like the Huang Jo, Cheng Se Cheng, and the Siquanhe," Jeremie said.

"What about you Odd? How did you do on question three?" Aelita asked.

"Simple. I said China was the most populated country in the world with a billion people per square meter." Odd held his drink as did the others. Everyone got a good kick out of that one as they started laughing. "You mean I got it wrong?"

"I guess I was right not to trust your stats, huh?" Ulrich chuckled. He carried on for a little bit, but then noticed a crow joining the other crows on top of the Arches. "Hey guys, have you noticed all those birds; it's kind of bizarre."

Odd chipped in his two-cents. "It reminds me of a film. A dumb flick about where birds attack the heroes. It wasn't even scary."

**-In the gym with Yumi and Cassidy-**

Yumi was doing gymnastics while Cassidy did some improvisational dance moves to the beat of her iPod. The song _Footloose_ was on her pink Creative Zen. She loved to dance freely and not think of anything, her feet doing time with the beat.

She could detect the sound of someone clapping, so she paused at the end of the second chorus to see Johnny. "Fantastic."

It was only a few months ago when Jeremie said those words after he came out of Limbo. Cassidy smiled at the marvelous memory, and then thanked her cheerer. "Thanks, Johnny. Free dancing is more my comfort zone anyway. It's a lot better than choreographed, I can tell you that."

**-Back to Jeremie, Aelita, Ulrich, and Odd-**

A crow swooped down, pecked Jeremie on the head, with an electric spark, and then went to join the others. The genius of the group caught something in the crow's eyes. The eye of XANA.

"I saw the sign. It was in their eyes. It's XANA," Jeremie said to the three.

Jeremie was correct. The sign showed perfectly in its eyes. It ordered the other crows to come and attack.

"Hurry. They'll peck away at us, until there's nothing left," Odd commanded.

They all ran fast, Ulrich earning a peck from one of the crows, to the factory.

"I take it all back. It wasn't a dumb film after all," Odd yelled. "Head for the passage! I'll try to lure them to my side!" He flipped around and raised his hands to the sky. "Come on, little birdies. Over here!"

The crows swooped on him like vultures over a piece of meat.

Meanwhile the others got to the passage, safe and sound. Ulrich opened the hatch, Aelita stepping inside first, Jeremie coming in second, and the first boy yelled, "Odd! Come on! We're here!"

Odd was now down on the ground. "Just give me a second to finish my acupuncture session!" He grabbed hold of a big stick, stood up, and warded the birds off. He ran then slid on his knees to the sewer entrance and went right in, sealing the entryway before any crows got in.

**-Inside the sewers-**

Jeremie pumped away with his foot on his scooter. "Incredible. I forget to check the super-scan for a few hours and—bang—XANA attack!"

"And with Cassidy being on her Time of Month and everything, her powers are super messed up," Odd told him.

"Don't worry, everything will be just fine once we get the tower deactivated," Aelita told the two boys.

**-Gym-**

Johnny was now playing the song _Footloose_ from Cassidy's iPod. _Keep it loose, Johnny_, he thought to himself.

_(First!)_  
_We got to turn you around  
(Second!)  
You put your feet on the ground  
(Third!)  
Now take a hold of your soul  
(Four! Whoa-oh—oh)  
I'm turning it_

_Loose, footloose  
Kick off your Sunday shoes  
Please, Louise  
Pull me offa my knees  
Jack, get back  
C'mon before we crack  
Lose your blues  
Everyone cut  
(Footloose, footloose, FOOTLOOSE!)_

_Loose, footloose  
Kick off your Sunday shoes  
(Going good)  
Please, Louise  
Pull me offa my knees  
Jack, get back  
C'mon before we crack  
Lose your blues_

_Everybody cut, Everybody cut  
Everybody cut, Everybody cut  
Everybody cut, Everybody cut  
Everybody  
(Everybody!)  
Everybody cut Footloose!_

At the end of that, Johnny attempted to do a split, but he accidentally injured himself.

Cassidy and Yumi winced. The poor boy was in pain.

Yumi's phone rang. She picked it up. "Odd?"

Cassidy looked behind her, eyes lightening but not going white. "¡Oh, Madre de Dios! ¡CUERVOS!" she panicked.

"What?" Johnny asked.

"Oh, Mother of God! CROWS!" she squealed.

She grabbed Yumi and bolted out of the gymnasium like two cheetahs.

"Cassidy, Yumi! Wait up!" Johnny told them, finally recovering and running after them.

"No! Don't follow us!" Yumi told him.

Then the crows came burst in. Yumi and Cassidy both dodged—the former using gymnastics and the latter ducking. Yumi pointed in the direction of the door. "Johnny, get going, it's us that they're after!"

Johnny ran for the door, some of the crows following him, too, made it outside, and shut the door, fencing the crows from attacking him.

Yumi broke a window, jumping out and Cassidy followed her. "Something tells me XANA is up to this," Yumi nodded. "Are your powers okay?"

"I don't know, ever since my Time of Month happened between me and Jeremie, my powers have been wackier than whacky neighbors doing cosas locas," her friend responded.

The crows started to follow as the two sped off. "Let's split up! That way one of us gets to the factory with the others." Cassidy had a worried look on her face.

"That's crazy; you can't fight them alone!" Yumi panted.

"Who said I would be fighting?" Cassidy imitated Ulrich for fun.

The two split up, Yumi heading for the boiler room, and Cassidy to the garden shed.

The crows followed Cassidy.

Johnny ran off to get help.

**-Factory-**

Ulrich popped his head out first and saw a multitude of crows. One of them was right in front of him, crossing in front of his path as if guarding.

Everyone came out slowly to see what he was seeing. "I don't believe it!" Odd muttered.

Aelita let out a breath. "We've been through worse. And besides, it's not every day that we get such a big audience." She began to walk carefully through the muster of crows and the boys followed her lead, and before they got close, one of the crows decided to attack.

"We'll delay them. Get to the elevator. See you later," Ulrich told Aelita and Jeremie. **(A/N: LOL, Ulrich rhymes)**

Odd put up a fighting stance. "Over here! We're waiting!"

Ulrich put up a stance, too.

Jeremie and Aelita made it to the elevator, but saw Ulrich and Odd getting pummeled by the birds as they slid down the ropes.

As the lift was about to close, Jeremie yelled, "Ulrich! Odd! HURRY UP!"

Ulrich was down first in a matter of seconds. Odd was second. They slid into the elevator like two people aiming for home plate in a partnered version of baseball as it almost made its descent.

The beaks made indents in the metal.

Odd decided to brag. "I took out five of them. What about you?"

"I don't know, but if you're trying to cheat, don't forget that the birds aren't part of the stats, only monsters sent by XANA," Ulrich reminded them.

"Yumi and Cassidy are all on their own. I hope they're okay!" Aelita called one of them on her pink cell phone.

**-Cassidy-**

She managed to get in the garden shed when her phone rang. She ran in, barred the door, and barely avoided getting grazed by one of the crows' beaks. She ducked, and gradually sunk down into a little whirl of unconsciousness.

**-Yumi-**

She managed to go into the supercomputer lab to wait out her friends.

**-To the four on-their-way Lyoko warriors-**

Aelita didn't get an answer, but Cassidy's voicemail, "Hola, you've reached Cassidy's cell phone. Leave a message."

She stopped the call. "There's no answer."

The elevator stopped and opened to reveal Yumi in front of the door. "Cassidy's doing all she can right now. She's a little busy at the moment," Yumi explained, panting. **(A/N: She used the rubber dinghy from last time to get into the Lab, don't ask how she got there. Just go with it)**

"You should rest," Ulrich told her.

"As for Cassidy, don't worry. I'll virtualize you in the vicinity of the activated tower, and then I'll call Cassidy," Jeremie told everyone, Yumi taking a seat in one corner of the lab, trying to catch her breath.

He turned around.

**-To Cassidy's dilemma-**

"Más tarde," she muttered in Spanish under her almost nonexistent breath, looking at her phone.

Then a muster of crows started to attack Cassidy.

They pecked her so much that she dropped her phone. She started to black out as she was pinned against the door.

**-With the half-pecked Lyoko Gang-**

Aelita, Odd, and Ulrich were on Lyoko's Desert region, thanks to Jeremie. The OverBike and OverBoard were there in instant. _"The activated tower is south, southwest in a crater."_

"Start up the stat program, Einstein!" Odd told his buddy.

"You're going to cry when you see the results," Ulrich got on his vehicle.

"I doubt it buddy, but besides I don't cry when I get bad grades do I?" Odd sped ahead with Aelita on his vehicle.

"If you did you'd have drowned in your tears ages ago," Ulrich retorted, catching up to them.

"_You can start earning your points now!"_ Jeremie told them over the intercom. _"XANA's sent you a big welcome party of Krabes."_

Odd gained altitude with his passenger. "Let's go, Ulrich. I'll leave you the claws!"

Ulrich revved his engine up with one of the handlebars. "We'll see about that."

As he caught up with his ninja buddy, Odd decided to still speed ahead. "May the best man win, and that's me. Bye! BANZAI!"

The samurai scowled. "Cheater!"

The ninja looked ahead, but not behind, himself as he searched for the Krabes. "Huh? But where are they? I don't see anything!"

All of a sudden, four lasers came up from behind and shot Odd's prized OverBoard. The two fell off the vehicle.

Ulrich, now catching up, had some concern on his face.

He then circled to look at Odd. "Is that what you mean by 'style', huh?"

"Go on then," Odd shouted. "See if you can do any better!"

Ulrich dived to the bottom of the crater then revved up to get near the enemies, unsheathing his saber.

He cut the undersides of three Krabes.

**-What happened on the too-action-y Earth?-**

"What's all this about crows with red eyes?" Jim asked Johnny, walking up to the garden shed with Mr. Delmas.

"But it's true, I swear. They flew into the gym and attacked Yumi and Cassidy! Yumi escaped, but I don't know about Cassidy!" Johnny said.

They saw the broken windows of the garden shed.

"Look at the windows," Johnny told them.

Jim touched the door and a storytelling of crows came rushing out, wild for their next target.

"There, ya see?" Johnny told Mr. Delmas after the muster was gone.

**-Jeremie-**

He tried for Cassidy's number, but still had no answer from her.

**-Jim, Johnny, and Jean-Pierre Delmas-**

Jim walked inside to find Cassidy, battered, bruised, and unconscious, on the floor of the garden shed. "Cassidy!" he was concerned.

She couldn't respond.

Her phone rang and Mr. Delmas noticed it right away. He picked it up. "Hello?"

**-Jeremie-**

"Mr. Delmas? Is that you?" Jeremie was concerned. Did something happen to Cassidy?

"_Yes, it's me,"_ said the same.

"Uh…do you know where Cassidy is?" Jeremie asked him.

**-Back to the aftermath-**

"Yes, she's here…in the tool shed, and she's been hurt!" Mr. Delmas's voice kept rising as if he was angry with the person on the other end.

"Mr. Delmas, we have to get her to a hospital," Jim told the school principal, taking Cassidy's pulse.

"Listen, Belpois, I'm too busy to talk to you at this time. I have to call an ambulance…"

**-To Jeremie-**

"…_so hang up, please!"_

Jeremie hung up the phone with Mr. Delmas.

"Ulrich! Odd! Aelita! Can you hear me?" Jeremie almost sounded like he was ready to get emotional.

Yumi got up and started to caress one of Jeremie's shoulders. She had overheard the phone call, too, and was starting to get that way too.

"Cassidy's been hurt. I have to launch a return to the past," he continued. "First you need to deactivate the tower, fast!"

**-Back to the MUCH-NEEDED Lyoko action-**

"Okay," Ulrich said.

Aelita was rushing to get into the tower when a Krabe came out of nowhere and started to fire, stopping her in her tracks. She jumped over to Odd who was getting ready to shoot some arrows.

"Leave it to me!"

Odd looked up in confusion and saw that Ulrich came back again to get rid of that Krabe. He revved up, jumped from his vehicle, stabbed the monster in the eye-like symbol, flipped in the air, touched back down to the OverBike, and watched the Krabe explode. "Bull's Eye!" Ulrich saluted.

Across the way, Odd put his hands on his hips. "That's not fair!" he protested.

A laser hit his friend's OverBike, making him sprawl out across how little land there was. Odd taunted his buddy. "Ha, ha!" and Odd laughed so hard that his guts would have started hurting if pain was increased on Lyoko.

Then a few laser shots got in and Odd got hit in the stomach, causing _Ulrich_ to taunt him.

Two Krabes hit the playing field.

"_Ulrich and Odd, would you mind concentrating. Do I need to remind you that there's a _tower_ to deactivate if you want to save Cassidy?"_ Jeremie reminded the combating duo, almost close to tears.

Odd bounded, flipped and shot three "LASER ARROWS!" at another Krabe. He then took this time to brag. "That's one less monster. Odd the Great, the Brave, the Magnificent has finally overcome his handicap and now has caught up with his opponent…" something ending with an -ly, "of course, as Odd…" he got shot by a laser and was devirtualized.

Ulrich ran in front of his pixilated buddy and said, "So long, Odd, the Mega—ugh!" he forgot about the monster that devirtualized his friend. And so he tried to deflect the Krabe's shots when he got hit in the shoulder.

"_Careful, Ulrich. You're losing too many life points."_

Ulrich rolled over and jumped using his hands and feet to avoid the Krabe's next laser when a pink orb hit the beast dead center. It was destroyed in a matter of seconds.

He looked to Aelita, the source of the energy field. "Hey, Aelita, you're cheating."

_Cheating? She hasn't had a move all day!_ Cassidy's random words worked their way to Ulrich's mind.

"Yeah, I know, but you guys are just too clumsy." She winked and went off to deactivate the tower.

"_Nice one, Aelita!"_ Jeremie was impressed, even though emotional.

**-Back to the Lab-**

Jeremie and Yumi heard the squawking of crows, and their relief was almost short lived when the muster started to attack.

**-Inside the soon-to-be deactivated tower-**

Aelita entered the Lyoko Code.

"Tower deactivated!"

She then exited the tower. "It's okay, Jeremie. You can launch a return to the past, now," Ulrich assured. Then Hornets arrived. "Jeremie? Jeremie! Do you read us, Jeremie?" He blocked a few shots and Aelita shot an energy field.

**-In the ambulance-**

Cassidy was now on the stretcher as Johnny sat by, watching her signs. The ambulance doors closed.

The principal and Jim were outside as the ambulance raced away.

"Can you make anything out of this attack by birds with electric beaks, Jim?" Mr. Delmas asked.

"No, I've never seen anything like it, sir. Except when I investigated paranormal phenomena for a highly secret service section," Jim answered.

"I didn't know that!"

"I did, but I'd rather not talk about it. It's a classified defense secret," Jim told him.

**-Back where Odd comes up-**

Odd came up to see Yumi with minor injuries but Jeremie unconscious. "Yumi! Are you okay?" Odd asked.

"They didn't attack me as much as Jeremie. I'm okay, but he isn't. He's out cold," the only girl in the lab pointed to the genius.

"I don't believe this!" he groaned as if queasy. "Jeremie!"

"We better try to get him up. Only he knows how to do a return to the past," Yumi told him.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

Ulrich and Aelita were doing their best to dodge the enemies. She shot an energy field at one but got caught by the Schyphozoa. "Ulrich!"

He was busy blocking shots of the Hornets, but heard her pleas. "AELITA!" he shouted, but had to block more shots.

One Hornet shot his saber up into the air. Another one shot it higher and the others joined in until his sword vanished.

"Oh, no!"

"_Ulrich, can you hear me?"_ Odd asked through the intercom. _"Jeremie's out cold! The birds have attacked him."_

"Oh, great! XANA's captured Aelita, I've got Hornets on my tail, and my saber's gone," Ulrich listed. "Do something."

"_I'd love to, but the supercomputer's programs aren't exactly my thing. I can try to get your saber back,"_ Odd was right to be worried.

**-Lab-**

Odd, trying his hardest to help, tried to type on a program.

**-Back to the task at hand on Lyoko-**

A Manta came from the lip of the crater and swooped to be underneath the Schyphozoa.

Ulrich saw that. "Oh, NO!" he tried to rush over there, but two Hornets blocked his path.

The jellyfish-like monster set XANA-Aelita down on the Manta and the two were off.

"I don't believe this!" he growled as the Hornets came to join the Manta and its rider. "SUPER SPRINT!"

He used his ability to attempt to follow them.

**-Along the way-**

Johnny was still sitting in the ambulance, wiping Cassidy's forehead with a cloth, when she came to. "Johnny?" she winced as a wave of pain ricocheted throughout her system. "You're still with me?" She winced again.

"Sure, I am. I wouldn't leave you, Cassidy," Johnny smiled.

She managed a small smile. "It takes…" wince "…a great deal of bravery…" wince "…to stand up to your enemies. A little…" another wince "…more to stand up to your friends. If I were Dumbledore, I would have awarded you more than seventy points for doing so."

"Ulrich said…"

"I know—" she hissed in pain—"I know what he said. I'm…psychic. He told you to follow me around." She took a gasp of breath. "I…I don't mind it."

**-Back on Lyoko and with a saber-less Ulrich (not as a tease)-**

Ulrich was still following the trail of three Hornets and one Manta. He jumped up, using the Hornets as stepping stones, and kicked the Manta, making it drop its passenger at once.

Dropping down, he rushed over, and grabbed the falling Aelita at once, setting her on the ground, gently.

But what he didn't see was her eyes. They showed the blatant eye of XANA. She charged up an energy field and almost fired when Ulrich Super Sprinted to his left.

"I may not have my saber, but I can still run," he taunted a little.

She fired anyway and Ulrich dodged, yelling what sounded like a "HOLY!" in the process.

"Odd, we can't take the chance of Aelita going into the way tower," Ulrich informed his amigo. "You gotta try to launch a return in time."

"_I thought we were never to do that while she's under XANA's control!"_ Odd said.

She fired again and he dodged. "Well at least try to program me a saber. Cassidy's EMP bullets aren't available right at the moment."

"_I'm almost there! And here we go!"_

Ulrich saw his saber come back to his hand ("Okay, great, Odd!"), but when he tried to grasp it, it disappeared. "Huh? Okay, I take that back."

"_Uh…sorry!"_ Odd sounded shameful.

He looked to see Aelita running to the way tower. He had to stop her, or at least slow her down, so he tripped her, using his Super Sprint, and she went sprawling. A laser tried to connect to him, but he managed to dodge. The Manta tried again, but this time, Ulrich tried to use the hostage technique, only without the gun.

He tried to aim Aelita toward the Manta to get a fair shot.

**-Lab-**

"Let's see, how are we going to get out of this one?" Odd asked to himself.

Yumi was trying to wake Jeremie up.

He then got an idea.

"It's time for some strong arm tactics!"

**-Back to Cassidy and Johnny-**

Johnny patted the hand with the IV, trying to keep the psychic girl from giving out. He looked to the vital signs as did she. Cassidy tried to keep from blacking out. _This Christian heart's not giving in. Never. I'm going to fight._ The girl's thoughts kept her from surrendering to her condition.

She started to weakly sing, _"Towards her dream of breaking ribbons In a 100-yard dash  
Going all the way with her amigos out back  
She believes one day she'll stand up And walk away from this pain and scares  
She's got faith, she's got hope And all her momma's prayers  
She's not jaded or bitter She's gonna leave the givin' up  
For the quitters."_

"That's beautiful, Cassidy," Johnny said. "And you won't give up, right?"

"Never!"

**-Back to Lyoko, then-**

XANA-Aelita elbowed Ulrich in the gut, causing him to let go. She turned around, started an energy field, and tried to fire at him. He moved away, but the energy field collided with the kopje and made a massive hole in the rock formation. Several shards flew out and one landed in front of Ulrich. It was a shard that would compensate for his missing saber.

A few more shards fell near him.

Laser fire took hold. "You're beginning to get on my nerves," he singsonged, grabbing hold of the shard and using it as his weapon.

He jumped on the Manta. One Hornet tried to get him. He dodged. "Aw, you missed," he smart-mouthed as another one tried to get him. He ducked. "Missed again! Tough break!"

The last one tried to get at him from behind, but was whacked back into a rock formation.

Ulrich flipped his shard around and stabbed the Manta with it.

**-Back at the lab-**

Odd was trying to get Jeremie to wake up while Yumi watched. "Come on, Jeremie. This is the tenth slap. Don't tell me you need a real smash." He drew back and, as the genius came back to consciousness ("Odd!" Jeremie had said), almost slapped him.

"Are you crazy, or what?" Jeremie asked.

Odd covered his teeth. He had almost smacked him when he was conscious.

**-Back to Cassidy's condition-**

The heart monitor showed Cassidy's vital signs slowing down. She slowly drew into the realm of unconsciousness. "Cassidy!" Johnny tried to get her up, petting her hand again.

**-Lyoko's strong dilemma-**

Aelita was running to the way tower again. Ulrich got in her way. "I'm not going to let you through, Aelita." He then was shot by a Hornet. She took the opportunity to go to the way tower.

He threw the shard at the last two Hornets. Both of them destroyed on impact. "One…two…but," Ulrich looked back. "Oh, no!"

Aelita was now close to the tower as she entered.

**-Back with Cassidy-**

Cassidy's eyelids started to shut. Johnny was trying to keep her awake with tears in his eyes. "Hang in there, Cassidy!"

Her face was paling.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

Aelita, under XANA's control, entered the CODE: XANA.

**-Where Ulrich's at-**

"_Ulrich,"_ Jeremie said. _"I'm ready for action again. Tell me what's going on. Do you need help?"_

The tower dissolved into nothingness and an un-possessed Aelita dropped out.

"Too late," Ulrich muttered in a whisper.

He ran and said to Aelita, "Come on, Aelita. This is no time to drag your feet." The pink-haired girl got to her feet as the two ran from the disappearing sector.

**-Now at the Hospital-**

The doctors were assessing Cassidy's condition. "What do we have here?"

"Adolescent girl, fourteen, multiple injuries, unconscious," the paramedic listed to the first doctor.

**-Back at the lab-**

"It's all over," Jeremie sounded despondent.

"For the Desert Sector, yes. But for Cassidy, I hope not, so move it," Odd put a hand on his friend's shoulder then removed it as Jeremie typed on the keyboard.

"Return to the Past, now," Jeremie said.

**-Back in time-**

"Very funny, Della Robbia," Hervé said. They were all back to that morning.

Jeremie came in. Ulrich was worried. "Well?"

"It's okay. Cassidy's going to be fine. And she didn't mind you having Johnny tag-alongside her. She's not angry at all," Jeremie soothed.

Odd spat out some toothpaste at the mirror in shock. "What? She didn't mind it?"

"She isn't even furious. She said it was like having a little brother…one that she might never have until later in the future, when she's an adult," Jeremie added.

"Huh, so our warnings were false. It might be different if Yumi took the blow," Odd was still in shock.

Johnny came in. "Um…Ulrich, have you got a minute? Can I talk to you in private?"

"No problem," Ulrich smiled in his direction.

**-To Ulrich and Odd's room for the second time this chapter-**

"Well, you see, um…when I see Cassidy, well…um…" Johnny started again.

"Okay," Ulrich said. "I get it, you like her. And you don't know how to get her to notice you, right?"

"Well, that's it, but how did you guess?"

"Instinct," Ulrich covered up Lyoko very well. "There's one thing that can't fail."

"'Sure?"

"She's going to love it, trust me. Now you gotta go find her."

**-Back to the Library-**

"Do you mind if I sit with you?" Johnny asked Cassidy when he came to her.

"Not at all, Johnny boy," Cassidy smiled, using her almost-correct Southern accent that she grew to love. "We can file the Soc and Greaser gangs together. You don't mind, do you, Yumi?"

"Not at all," Yumi smiled.

The little boy opened his mouth to speak, but Cassidy said with a cheerful voice, "Yes, you and me together. Now come on!"

Johnny sat down and helped the girls. "Wow! That Ulrich really rocks."

"You are right about that," Cassidy smiled.

**-That afternoon-**

"Hey, guys, I got the latest stats from Lyoko battles," Jeremie held a piece of paper.

"Ready to eat your hat, good buddy?" Odd gloated to his opponent.

"You're the one who's not going to be able to digest this!" Ulrich turned to him.

Jeremie glared a little at the two boys and read off, "The Lyoko Warrior who has outclassed all the others is... Aelita!"

Aelita and Jeremie exchanged laughs and high fives.

"I don't believe in statistics. They don't mean a thing. That's not the way to determine a real Lyoko hero," Odd said, a little down on the statistic showing.

"Yeah, for once, I agree with you Odd," Ulrich agreed, but then realized. "Aw crap."

"What?" Odd asked.

"Last night, Cassidy made another bet with me. Now I have to date Yumi!"

**-And I'll leave it up to your devices to determine how well the date went-**


	35. The Secret? William discovered Lyoko!

**Something tells me that the Secret is almost out. Aw, well. I'm going to chalk it all up as unneeded suspicion.**

**Code Lyoko is not mine. Cassidy is.**

**And to the reviewer, kameo, I see your review, but you have to face that I take my time on the fan fiction chapters. I'm human, too, okay? I get done with the chapter I'm on, take a break, then I work on another one. Just one chapter every few days is where I'm at right now. I promise to pick up speed in May or June of 2011.**

**-In Yumi's room-**

Yumi's phone rang and she, albeit groggy, picked up. Hearing Jeremie say "XANA alert", she said, "Okay, Jeremie, I'm on my way."

After getting dressed and sneaking outside in the dead of night, Yumi was about to make her move to the factory when all of a sudden, William ran her over with his skateboard.

"Yumi! What are you doing up so late?" He asked, rubbing his shoulder.

"I wouldn't exactly call this being up, would you?" Yumi snarled.

"Sorry, I was rushing to get back to the dorms. I climbed the wall to see Sky-breaker 4 but it was really lame," he flipped his skateboard to his shoulder.

"The first three were duds, why the big surprise," she said sarcastically.

"I guess I'm just too much of an optimist. Even when things start badly, I always feel they can get better if given time." He smiled.

"Yeah, right, okay, well I gotta go!" She tried to move around him when he put his skateboard in a position that almost said "Ye shall not pass".

"Really? Where to?"

"To save the world. Is that a good enough answer to you?" Yumi growled. Cassidy's ex-boyfriend really needed to move, or else things would get hairier like ugly on an ape. "LET ME GO, WILLIAM!"

"Okay, but before I do, you gotta give me a kiss goodnight," William, over the months, was now infatuated with Yumi. But she still wouldn't give him anything worth monkey-wrenches for what he had done to his previous girlfriend.

She heard Cassidy's words. _Trick him. Trick him!_ Smirking, she said, "Alright, but first, close your eyes."

"Great. Looks like my evening wasn't a waste after all."

He did so and puckered up. Yumi ding-dong ditched the guy as he was waiting.

"Yumi? Yumi? Yumi!"

**-YAY! Yumi made it to the factory-**

"Here I am, Jeremie. You can send me in!" Yumi got into a ready position in the scanner room.

"_You got here just in time to welcome Aelita, Cassidy, Odd, and Ulrich on their return from Lyoko,"_ Jeremie told her with a smile.

"You already deactivated the tower?" she was in temporary shock.

Ulrich came out. "Hey, Yumi what happened to you?"

Then Aelita came out. "Didn't you hear your cell phone ring?"

Odd's scanner doors opened. "Nothing to worry about. I oversleep about three times a week. Of course, with Ulrich snoring like a grizzly it's a question of survival."

Finally, Cassidy came through. "She was held up by my stupid ex." She muttered something about her ex and something about seventeen thousand hammers.

"Actually, it's not only my sleep that's beginning to bring me down!" Yumi agreed with her recently arrived friend.

**-The next morning with Cassidy and Yumi's PE class-**

"Mathias Durrel."

"Present!"

"Emmanuel Maillard!"

"Present!" He sounded like he had a cold.

"Maetina de Collieur!" Jim called.

"Here!"

William made his way to Yumi. "Hey, you know, last night you pulled a fast one on me. No one has ever humiliated me like that before. What'cha do it for?"

"Because, for one thing, William, you ripped up my friend's heart and the only chance of her ever getting home. And, I find your dumb two-bit Casanova act sickening."

"But I—"

"In the beginning, it was pretty nice, but now I am really fed up."

"You go, Yumi!" Cassidy smiled.

"So why don't you buzz off, William, and leave us alone."

"William Dunbar! WILLIAM DUNBAR!" Jim roared.

"Okay, okay. I'm not deaf. You can see I'm here, can't ya?" William yelled.

Yumi gasped.

Cassidy did a little "yes" of victory to herself. She knew that this was the first time in three weeks that she could do PE without her ex. Her powers told her so.

Jim was not impressed. "Dunbar—to the library—outta my sight. No swimming for you today, you got that?"

William came in between the girls and said, "Anyway, I'd like to know what you had to do that was so important last night, and I'm going to find out what your big secret is." He stormed off. "You can bet on that."

The psychic shivered. Yumi looked to her. "Are you okay?"

"Just a bad feeling, but it'll pass. Besides, I'd rather be synchronized swimming with you today because I feel like it," she nodded.

"I noticed that you didn't get annoyed at Johnny the other day before the return trip. How come? Were you okay?" she wondered.

"Same interests, didn't mind it, and he stayed by my side when I was in the ambulance and hospital. My powers, though slowly whirling out, told me that Johnny was with me when I started to worsen," Cassidy sighed. "If you were in my place, you would be opposite of me. You would be totally annoyed."

Yumi smiled.

"Cassidy McGuire."

"Present and accounted for, Jim."

**-With Jeremie and the others-**

"Don't worry, Jeremie," Aelita told him. "We're going to make a fabulous report."

"Well, we better. It counts for the whole semester," Jeremie was still not moved.

Ulrich came up. "So, what's the latest in the world of Kadic Junior High today?"

"Is Judith Nevers going out with Ronald Limozan?" Odd read off a headline.

"Who are Judith Nevers and Ronald Limozan?" The samurai boy asked.

"How should I know? Anyway, it seems they are going out!" The ninja shrugged.

Jeremie found an **activated tower.** "Oh, no, I don't believe it. A XANA alert!"

"Not again!" Ulrich groaned. That was the second attack in a few hours.

"Yeah, and the big problem is Aelita and me can't get out of history class, not this time," Jeremie fretted.

Odd put a hand on Ulrich's shoulder. "Don't sweat it, Einstein. Ulrich and I will go and get ready. When you get there, you can send us to Lyoko, but finish your report as fast as possible."

**-With William-**

-STOMP-

"Second-rate Casanova huh?" William was majorly ticked off at Yumi and her friend.

He noticed Odd and Ulrich going down a sewer route.

"I can't reach Yumi or Cassidy. They're not picking up," Ulrich tried a number.

"What's going on with Yumi, lately? Last night, and then now," Odd disappeared from view as did the samurai warrior.

William watched from his hiding place with a smile on his face. This time he got them right where he needed them.

**-Back with Jeremie and Aelita-**

Aelita put in another side in the projector and pressed a button.

Jeremie stood at the front, ready to give their report of World War I. On the screen behind him, the years 1914-1919 stood on a single slide. He looked back, checking if the projector was projecting the right image, cleared his throat, and asked, "Sir, is it okay if we begin now?" They had to finish fast. XANA was attacking.

"Yes, you may," Mr. Fumet told the two. "But where are Odd and Ulrich?"

"Well sir, they had something important to do, and…"

"More important than my class?"

"Well, actually, I wasn't supposed to tell you, but they're preparing a surprise for your class, Mr. Fumet," Jeremie covered Odd and Ulrich's whereabouts quite well.

"A surprise? What kind of surprise?"

"It's…um…a big historical show in your honor!"

"Oh!" Mr. Fumet was pleasantly stunned. He had no idea that Odd and Ulrich would do such a thing like that. "I'd…never have guessed. I'll excuse their absence this time."

Aelita was now getting annoyed. "And now sir, may we begin?"

"Yes, yes, of course, go on. Tell us everything you know on World War I."

Jeremie had to talk fast. "On June 28th, 1914, a Serbian nationalist, Gavrilo Princip, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, nephew and heir to Austro-Hungarian emperor Franz Joseph. This took place in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

"Political alliances were reinforced and, within a few days, all of Europe became involved. Serbia, Russia, France, and Great Britain were on one side, Germany and Austria-Hungary on the other.

"Italy was initially apart of the Triple Alliance, but then turned coat to join France, Serbia, Russia, and Great Britain. Other countries became part of the conflict. Germany invaded Belgium. Greece, Romania, and the US joined the allies with Turkey and Bulgaria supporting the Central Europe.

The US navy first recruited women."

Everyone was in a frizz, minus Aelita (operating the projector), to get the notes down as fast as Jeremie was talking.

**-JEEZ, Jeremie, SLOW IT DOWN!-**

Odd and Ulrich made their way to the factory using their skateboards with William following far behind them.

**-Dang! Back to Fast Talk Jeremie-**

"The Armistice Treaties, signed in late October and early November of 1918, put an end to the fighting. Survivors of the US army got home in between 1918 and 1919. But peace treaties had to be drawn up for a definitive end to the war that most people hoped to be The War to End All Wars, clearing the way for a lasting peace. Finally in Paris, the victorious countries united in a peace conference with the full creation of the League of Nations. And the adoption of peace treaties submitted to the defeated nations," Jeremie finished, throwing away the notes he had prepared. "I hope that wasn't too long!"

Everyone wasn't so sure about that. Jeremie usually kept a normal pace but today, he was zipping through it as if he didn't have a care.

Aelita turned off the projector.

"Sir, can I go to the infirmary? I have a bit of a headache," Jeremie asked.

"Um…I do, too, sir," Aelita agreed.

Mr. Fumet took off his glasses. "Yes, yes, go on, go on. I'm not feeling too well either all of a sudden."

Aelita and Jeremie left in a hurry. XANA was now in the top position of the priority list.

**-Ulrich and Odd-**

Odd and Ulrich got to the elevator shaft as William followed to the rusty, broken stairs. "Ulrich, try Yumi's mobile again. They're bound to answer sooner or later."

William smirked. This was his "JACKPOT" moment.

**-With Yumi and Cassidy-**

"Today, we're going to have a little lesson in synchronized swimming," Jim announced.

Yumi smiled. "You got that one right again, Cassidy," she whispered to her.

"My powers are a little like strong tea."

"And that means, no speed competitions, no stopwatches, just pure grace," the teacher/coach continued. "As Confucius once said, 'A picture's worth a thousand words', here's a demonstration. Admire the finesse." He jumped into the pool and did a kinda less-than-graceful move in the water.

"You know what I think? That's about as graceful as tractor pulling," Yumi whispered to Maetina and Cassidy.

The psychic grinned and tried not to snicker.

Maetina chuckled.

**-With Jeremie and Aelita-**

"Do you think we'll get a good grade? We said all we wanted to, but it was a bit fast," Aelita worried as the two headed into the elevator. William, unseen by the two, found his moment.

"Fumet said a one-page presentation. He didn't give us any time limits," Jeremie reassured.

"It seems that lately XANA's been getting more and more active. We're constantly on Lyoko," Aelita was a little concerned.

William ducked and made it inside the elevator. "Hey, sorry to interrupt but, uh, do you mind telling me who this XANA dude is?"

That was alarming. Another thing on Jeremie's mind was: _We have to do a return trip._

**-Odd and Ulrich-**

Odd lazily and repeatedly punched the enter key. Ulrich stood by. Then the elevator opened. "Oh, there you are. We already started things up. Your turn, Einstein!" Odd smiled, but then he and the samurai warrior looked at who was there with eyes as wide as a P. Detlefsen portrait.

"What's _William_ doing here?" The ninja warrior panicked. If Cassidy saw her ex in the factory then she would throw a fit so huge it would send a herd of rhinos to the location of the factory.

"I guess he must've followed you guys," Jeremie pointed to the two.

William looked around himself in awe. "Wow, what is this thing, huh? And what do you guys do in here?"

Ulrich formed a fist and hit inside his palm. "Why don't I clobber him a few times?"

"Yeah, try it if you think you're good enough!" the bitter rival crossed his arms across his chest.

Jeremie had to set the peace. "Calm down, our priority now is the tower."

**-Just a little quick interruption-**

Cassidy shivered again as a spark-flash got on her. Yumi noticed. Maetina was already in the pool. "You okay, Cassidy?"

"He isn't!"

"Who's he?" Now things were growing more concerning.

"William!"

**-Back to the show-**

"Afterwards, a simple return to the past and William won't remember a thing?" Jeremie reassured.

"I wouldn't bet on that, huh," William said. "I remember everything. And I'm great at holding a grudge."

"Like against your ex, huh?" Odd shot back, defending his friend.

"Where are Yumi and Cassidy?" Aelita wondered.

"They're unreachable," was Ulrich's answer.

"So that's their secret. A supercomputer hideout—that's incredible! Now I understand why the girls didn't want to tell me anything." Cassidy's ex walked around the laboratory.

In the middle of it, William gained a flashback.

**FLASHBACK #9**

_He was fighting a girl with Yumi's voice. He was not himself and was controlled by a supernatural force. He had her pinned down, a giant sword above him, and she had time to yelp, "NO WILLIAM! You're a Lyoko warrior! You _swore_ to it!"_

_He stopped instantly._

**END OF FLASHBACK 9**

He came back with a bewildered expression on his face. "Oh…kay?"

"What?" Ulrich now was confused.

"Someone said that I was a Loco warrior and I swore to something," he shook his head.

"We're going to have to make do without them," Jeremie typed on the computer, "but I don't like this at all."

"I can go and get them if you want," William suggested.

The boys all looked to him as if he were nuts. But William knew exactly where Cassidy and Yumi were.

**-Later-**

"I hope he's not going to rat on us to the principal," Ulrich worried.

"That's not his style. And besides, this is an emergency, Ulrich. We need Yumi and Cassidy. We don't know what kind of dirty trick XANA is preparing without Cassidy!" Odd told his buddy.

**-With William-**

He was running fast to the pool whilst a technician stood at the entrance, the sign of XANA in his eyes.

He pressed a button on one of the charges XANA wanted to use.

**-Aelita, Ulrich, and Odd are on Lyoko! In the Ice Sector-**

Aelita, Ulrich, and Odd landed on site.

"_Here come your vehicles!"_ Jeremie announced.

The OverBike and OverBoard showed up in front of the girl and the two boys.

"_The activated tower is in the northern edge of the sector. From where you are you should be able to see its halo,"_ Jeremie told them as the three got on the vehicles (Aelita on the OverBoard).

"Hey, how come you're always right, huh, Einstein?" Odd put a hand on his hip, but everyone knew that he was joking.

"Okay, Jeremie, we're on it!" Ulrich revved up his OverBike.

They started off for the tower.

**-With Yumi and Cassidy-**

The two decided to partner up. They swam as gracefully as they could.

"Be like me. Follow my example—like _grace_," Jim reminded.

"Emergency, Yumi and Cassidy! Let's go! XANA launched an attack!"

_Oh, CRAP TO THE INFINITY OF MY MIND!_ Cassidy thought in her head. Unfortunately, the two (not just the psychic) let go of their needed oxygen and were starting to swallow the chlorinated water. She flipped Yumi over so the latter could flip the former over. After, she coughed up water.

"Listen, Dunbar, what is this gibberish? You making fun of me or something?" Jim asked.

"No, I mean, not this time!" William smiled.

The coach stood up. "The principal's office, on the double!"

Yumi helped Cassidy to the edge. "You're right, Jim. Because of him, we nearly drowned. Let _us_ take him to the principal's office, just to make sure he doesn't run away."

An angry fire settled in the psychic's stomach. William was making things worse.

"Good idea! Go ahead, Ms. Ishiyama and Ms. McGuire. That's a very responsible attitude on your parts." He turned to William. "You can learn from their examples, Dunbar."

"Yes, you're right. I know that Cassidy and Yumi have a lot they could fill me in on." That set a ball of icy fear in Cassidy's stomach. Not only had William ruined her PE day, but he had also found out about XANA. And she had a really bad feeling about that.

**-Lyoko-**

"_Watch it. There are Kankrelats just behind you,"_ Jeremie warned.

"Okay, I'll take care of them," Aelita told her savior, taking first crack at one and succeeding. "Energy field."

The Kankrelats came by the multitude.

"Do you know how many of them there are?" she grew concerned.

"_Um…a big gang of them."_

"Thanks. Nothing like precision." She hit another one.

Ulrich tried to take to the air, but two of the little monsters took to each side and held the vehicle down. **(A/N: To which the author is thinking since when do Kankrelats have brains?)**

He tried to shake them off, but they held on pretty good. Seeing an ice floe, Ulrich got an idea. He used that one to bump the one on his left. It took three tries, but in the end, the dumb monster combusted. He repeated the same trick for the second one. The second one took only one try as it let go and exploded.

He looked back. "Sorry guys, but I don't play Favorite! Same treatment for everyone."

He caught up with Odd and Aelita as three of them tried to jump on his vehicle and missed.

**-Back to the technician-**

The XANAfied technician set up another charge then grabbed another one from his pack and placed it on another part of the factory.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

The myriad of Kankrelats were still following the three.

Ulrich had another idea. "Aelita, climb aboard!"

She did so as Odd sped ahead. Aelita was ready with her energy fields as she took out three on her own—two of them direct hits; one of them she missed, but got back in rebellion.

Odd was already far ahead, but noticed a Kankrelat coming. It jumped on, but he had the idea to flick it off with his OverBoard and hit it with a laser arrow.

He soon met up with Ulrich and Aelita. Driving next to them, he wanted to have her back on board. Without reading his thoughts, the samurai nodded. "Go ahead, Aelita. Hop off!"

Aelita did so and rejoined the ninja.

**-Back to that guy-**

All charges were set as the last one was set in place. The XANA-technician then pressed several red buttons on a control box and set the timer to ten minutes. He pressed an orange button, set it down and straightened up.

**-To Lyoko-**

"_You're closing in on it!"_

"Great! Tell that to the Kankrelats. They'll be overjoyed!" Odd pointed behind him and Aelita with his thumb.

Aelita got rid of another one.

They found a path that split two ways.

"We'll go separate ways and meet up on the other side," Ulrich informed Odd.

"Great," he quipped. "Hang tight, Aelita. Ready for some turbulence?"

They sped off over a ramp to the mouth of a cave, as Ulrich took the long stretch of path. Two Kankrelats followed Odd and Aelita.

Meanwhile Ulrich was avoiding getting jumped by Kankrelats.

Odd and Aelita were in the cavern when a laser missed them by mere inches. They saw two Kankrelats following them. One of them shot Aelita off the vehicle, causing her to slide. Odd tried to hold his balance as the two went past. "Since when do Kankrelats have turbo engines?"

_I don't have a clue, Odd,_ Cassidy's words climbed into his head.

The two Kankrelats tried to shoot at poor Aelita, but gladly, they missed. One of them hit its brethren.

Soon the exit was in plain sight. Aelita shot out first, along with the solo Kankrelat. Odd sped out of there, zipping past the monster, killing it, then diving down to catch the pink-haired falling girl, and catching up with Ulrich, who had just gotten rid of two Kankrelats.

He stopped. "Are you two okay?"

"Sure, no problem," Odd answered.

**-With William, Yumi, and Cassidy-**

William, Yumi, and Cassidy ran to the factory, the girls now in their day clothes.

"I still can't figure out what you guys do in that old, run-down factory," William panted.

"We save the world! Is that legit?" Cassidy scowled. _Mr. High-and-Mighty-in-the-Britches-Himself._

"And I can't figure out why they allowed you to give us a hand," Yumi panted, stopping for a little bit.

"Maybe it's just because they trust me," William said.

"Like I trusted you!" Cassidy growled. "Justice, like love, is blind."

"Save it, ex-y," William put a hand up to silence his used-to-be lover.

"NO!"

"Not like…"

Yumi had her phone out. "Jeremie, it's me. Um, we're on the bridge."

**-With Jeremie-**

"Odd and Ulrich are now pretty close to the tower," Jeremie informed.

**-Back to the two girls and the only boy-**

"Oh, no, I came too late for the party again," Yumi whined a little.

"And I wanted to get my groove on with the Kankrelats," Cassidy frowned.

"Hey, who's that guy?" William pointed. "One of your super heroes?"

The XANA-technician now stood at attention.

"He's possessed by our enemy!" Cassidy's eyes were a light brown. She was granted the phone and she said, "Jeremie, we're going to be a little late."

**-Jeremie-**

"Okay, you two. Be careful, huh? I'll tell the others that they got to hurry up."

**-Back to Cassidy, Yumi, and William-**

"You mean that that guy is your enemy. An electric company worker?" William taunted.

"You have a tío, right?" Cassidy growled.

"That's so lame. I was expecting something more gory."

The technician dropped his stash and ran up to attack, punching a small pothole in the bridge.

"Okay, I take it all back. He's a super enemy electrical worker," The two girls and the only boy backed up.

"William, that is not XANA's true form," Cassidy warned.

"And how do you know all that?" William asked.

"Because I'm…psychic."

The tech clenched a fist.

**-Back to the Lyoko field with Odd, Ulrich, and Aelita-**

The three got close to the tower, finding that it was being guarded by two Bloks and stopped.

Ulrich had a plan. "Go on, I'll take care of them!" He was about to rev off into the blue sunset when all of a sudden, one of the Bloks got to him first with a fire ring.

Odd and Aelita dodged on the OverBoard.

**-To the scanner room-**

Ulrich came out. "That's pretty sneaky—a hit and run." He clenched a fist.

**-With Jeremie-**

He conjured up Yumi's number. "Yumi, are you and Cassidy still there?"

**-William, Yumi, and Cassidy-**

"Yes, we are, but maybe not for long. This guy's a terror." Yumi and Cassidy both dodged a punch or two from the technician.

"I should've taken Pencak Silat lessons!" The brown-haired psychic girl shouted, dodging a kick.

"_Hang in there. Aelita should be in the tower any minute now!"_ Jeremie reassured in a worried tone.

Yumi got hit and went back and head first into the metal rail of the bridge. Cassidy received a kick to the stomach and flew into her. "Ow." She imitated a Teen Titans character.

"Cassidy, I think you may want to get off me, please."

She scrambled slowly off but received a kick to the head, knocking her senseless. "Where's the coyotes and ravens, Superman. I didn't order a wife, Mr. Tube Sock; I ordered a blanket. MARTY! Your billiard buddy's here!" **(A/N: for the Wife comment, the Marty shout, and the billiard buddy spoof line, guess where the three are spoofs of.)**

"Let me at him, Cassidy and Yumi. I'll take care of him!" William said.

"And then the song came down. We thought it was a brave…big weaving," Cassidy was still acting ridiculous. That blow to her head really had done her in.

"William, don't!" Yumi shouted.

He jumped up, tried to land a kick, got caught and then thrown to Cassidy's head, making her act even crazier. "Where's the bingo tourney, volley man?"

"_Yumi, Cassidy, what's going on? Yumi, come on, answer, please?"_

The tech kicked the phone out of the way.

**-Jeremie-**

"Odd, you gotta get the job done, now!" he informed his friend.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

"You're kidding. We do? I'd thought we'd do it after tea time," Odd bantered, flying through the fire rings, and dive bombing one.

He dropped Aelita off behind the action as one of the Bloks attacked with fluid ice. Odd dodged, until he went behind the other one, freezing the monster. He bent his knees as he flipped, shooting a laser arrow at it and getting devirtualized.

Aelita had meanwhile gotten into the tower.

**-Earth's scanner room-**

Odd came out, panting.

**-With the two girls and the only boy-**

"I wanna tell you this, okay. I—" William told the girls.

"This is a very bad time, William!" Yumi informed him.

Yumi (who was the only sane girl at the moment) was right. The three were dangling, trying to hang on to the bridge.

"I can't swim!"

"Two down…and a mini pizza to go," Cassidy muttered, still senseless.

"Cassidy, calm down," William tried to coax his ex.

She suddenly burst out laughing as the tech was almost about to slam down with his foot on Yumi's hand.

**-With Aelita-**

She entered the Lyoko Code. "Tower deactivated."

**-Back to the sane girl, the now-senseless psychic, and the only boy-**

The tech passed out.

**-Back to Jeremie-**

"Bravo, Aelita!" He complimented.

**-To William, Yumi, and Cassidy-**

Yumi picked up her cell phone after everyone got back on the bridge. _"Yumi?"_

"Jeremie, nice going. You guys did it just in time!" She smiled.

William was holding his ex, who was now passing out, up.

"_Everything okay on your side?"_

"We're good, but it was a close call." She smiled.

"Hey, what happened just now?" William asked.

"Well, Jeremie, now that it's all over, you can launch a return in time, right? So that you-know-who doesn't interfere with us again," She looked pointedly at the boy next to her. "And that our psychic retains her senses."

"What makes you think it's all over. This guy works for Explo-Bat!" William noticed the logo on the technician's suit.

"Yeah, so?" She asked.

"If I'm not mistaken, this guy works for a company that specializes in building demolition!" He sounded grim. "I bet he came here fully equipped to blow your factory sky-high—ba-boom!"

If Cassidy wasn't acting crazy, a huge spike of fear would have gone through her. Right now, she wasn't thinking straight.

A huge spear of fear went through Yumi though.

"Did you hear what William just said?"

"_Yeah, but relax, Yumi. I'll launch a return to the past, and the explosives will disappear along with William's memory,"_ Jeremie sounded a little bored.

**-Back to where Jeremie, Odd, and Ulrich are-**

"Oh, no the Schyphozoa!" Jeremie panicked.

He watched in horror as the possession began.

"The Schyphozoa's got Aelita!"

**-Back to Yumi, Cassidy, and William-**

"Why not launch a return to the past anyway, Jeremie?"

"_It's too dangerous! We don't know what might happen to Aelita if I do it while she's in XANA's clutches! So get back here now, and I'll send you to Lyoko,"_ Jeremie said.

**-Jeremie-**

"Ulrich, Odd, you gotta go find that bomb," Jeremie told the two.

"Will do," Ulrich told the leader and genius.

**-Not much later-**

"Good luck, Yumi!" Ulrich warmly told Yumi in the elevator.

"You too, guys. Find that dumb bomb so that our factory doesn't go up in smoke!" The elevator closed Yumi and Cassidy in. The psychic was draped on the floor of the elevator.

"I think the three of us oughtta split up," William said.

"Okay. Let's go," Ulrich said.

They did so.

**-Yumi in the scanner room-**

With Cassidy up in the lab with Jeremie, Yumi went into a scanner. Soon she was on Lyoko.

She saw that the Schyphozoa had let go of Aelita. "It's okay, Jeremie. The Schyphozoa has just released Aelita."

"_She's probably going to head for the way tower to start destroying the Ice Sector. And you've got to stop her from doing that at all costs."_ Yumi got on her OverWing and started the chase, but then a Megatank got in her way.

"Okay, consider it done…well, almost," she said, avoiding the elliptical lasers as she did so.

**-Back to the boys-**

William, Ulrich, and Odd searched for the bomb, when Odd spotted something. "Okay, I found it. It's over here." He waved the two over.

William was first to cut to the negative. "No, that's only one of the charges he set up. There's got to be a detonator here somewhere. That's what we're looking for."

"How do you know all this stuff?" the samurai warrior turned his head to the black-haired boy.

"My uncle used to work in construction. I'd go with him during vacation. He used to show me how to—"

Odd had to stop the family history train. "Okay. Family stories are all very moving, but we're kinda pressed here!" he reminded.

"Thanks, Odd. So, where do you think we'll find the detonator?" Ulrich leaned on a pole.

"I don't know, but the guy who works for Explo-Bat. He oughtta know," William said.

"Yeah, sure, but he's out cold like any other ex-XANAfied guy." The samurai told him.

"You keep searching. I'll try to wake him up," Odd ran to get to the guy.

Meanwhile, the detonator, out of sight of the running ninja-warrior, flashed five minutes and five seconds.

**-Back to the chase-**

Yumi was chasing the Megatank and Aelita at the same time. It was a hard task with the Megatank, as it fired its elliptical lasers at Yumi. (_"Yumi, you gotta get through that blockade of Megatanks. Aelita is closing in on the way tower."_)

**-Odd's situation-**

He was shaking the bomb worker to wake him up. "Hey, come on, sleeping beauty wake up, now. Look, it's your Prince Charming." He slapped him and the bomb worker awoke.

"What's going on?" The demolition guy spoke with an Italian accent. "Where am I? My dynamite! Where are my explosives?"

"In the factory—with a detonator. Can you recall anything?" Odd asked him.

"No—oh, my head!"

**-Back to Yumi-**

Yumi managed to defeat the only Megatank, losing her OverWing in the process. But she didn't give a flaming Cortez about it.

"_Yumi!"_ Jeremie was worried.

She then chased after Aelita on foot. _"Careful, Yumi. You don't have a lot of life points left!"_

**-Back to Odd-**

"Look carefully at this factory. If you had to blow it up, where would you set up the detonator?" Odd asked the man carefully.

"I can't think too straight, but I guess I would have to put it somewhere high up so the signal could reach all the charges," he said.

**-To Ulrich-**

Ulrich's phone rang and he picked it up. _"Ulrich, look somewhere over your head. Somewhere high up!"_

He did as he hung up.

**-Yumi's chase-**

"It's okay, Jeremie, I got Aelita in my sights," Yumi told the genius, virtual snow crunching under her feet.

**-Back to Ulrich, William, and Odd-**

Ulrich heard some beeping noises. "I think I found the detonator."

William came first. "Where?"

He pointed. "Way up there."

The countdown read four minutes forty-nine seconds.

**-Back to the chase-**

Aelita was nearly close to the tower when a fan came and tripped her up. She got up, turned around, and there was Yumi.

"I'm sorry, Aelita. But I don't have any choice," Yumi said, catching her tessen.

**-Jeremie-**

"_Jeremie, we found the detonator. We have to evacuate the factory, now. Everything's going to blow up in a few seconds!"_ Ulrich told Jeremie.

"Impossible, Ulrich," Jeremie gave his input. "We can't leave Yumi and Aelita stranded on Lyoko!"

**-Ulrich, William, and Odd-**

William was at the detonator box while Ulrich stood by.

"Give me your belt."

"Huh?"

"I'm going to try to diffuse the detonator, and I need something to use as a sort of shunt," William told him as Ulrich gave him his belt.

"You know how to do that?"

"My uncle explained it to me…uh, once!"

That shocked the samurai warrior. "Once?**!**"

"Once is enough if you're not too dumb, that is. Now get out of here. It doesn't work if both of us to get blown up," William explained, cutting the metal bar off of Ulrich's belt.

"Nuh-uh. No way, if you stay, I stay."

Odd came in. "That makes three of us!"

The timer now read that they had two minutes left.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

Aelita dodged the fans and tried two energy fields at Yumi, to which the latter dodged. She caught her fans.

**-William, Ulrich, and Odd-**

William unscrewed the lid and opened it. This was a risky operation.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

Aelita tried again and hit Yumi in the stomach area with an energy field.

"_Yumi, another hit like that…"_

**-Jeremie-**

"And it's game over for you," Jeremie said. "And then it's going to be game over for the Ice Sector as well."

Cassidy began to stir. "J-Jeremie?" she groaned.

"Hold on, Cassidy."

**-William, Odd, and Ulrich-**

William was trying not to shake as he tried to put the little bar in.

Ulrich and Odd watched on as the timer ticked down.

They had twenty-seven seconds left.

**-Back to Aelita and Yumi-**

Aelita charged up another energy field as Yumi readied her fan. They threw their weapons. The energy field hit Yumi one last time and she devirtualized. Aelita turned around and went for the tower. She got into the path of one of Yumi's fans and devirtualized.

**-Back to William, Odd, and Ulrich-**

William, meanwhile, had carefully placed the bar in. The three watched as the countdown flashed in and out until…

The.

Detonator.

Came.

To.

A.

Calm.

Beeping.

Stop.

William's plan worked. "YEAH!"

"Jeremie, we did it! William diffused the detonator!" Ulrich, who was sweating in fear for the duration of the disarming, was now calm again.

**-Back to Jeremie-**

"_We're saved!"_ Ulrich came from the other end.

Jeremie breathed a sigh of relief.

Cassidy was confused. "Did we diffuse a bomb and stop Aelita from getting rid of the Ice Sector?" She sat up as Jeremie nodded. "Oye, next time, I'm skipping PE class…if there's a next time."

Jeremie looked into the girl's eyes. They were dull and looked to be in pain.

"Just hold your own for now. All this will be over soon."

**-Later on-**

"Aw, come on!" William whined. Cassidy had then recovered, but was still amnesiac on what she said before she passed out ("Something about a tube sock?"). "Please? I swear I won't tell anyone."

"He really does deserve to be one of us. Besides we could use another soldier," Odd amended.

"And he's already proven how much he can help," Aelita agreed.

"Well then, let's vote. If everyone votes yes, then William can officially become part of our club."

After the ballots were cast there were five yeses but… "I'm sorry, William. There's one no."

"You're big losers." That hit Cassidy in the chest as her ex said that. "I was kinda expecting this might happen. Some guys just can't handle being jealous."

He went into the elevator and pressed the button.

"Well, then, what do you suppose we should do now?" Ulrich asked.

"What do you think?" Jeremie pressed a button. "A return to the past."

**-Back in time-**

They were back to that night.

"Nice one, Cassidy," Odd growled. He was referring to the vote.

"I never voted no. In fact, I was torn between yes and no that I almost wrote in a new answer: maybe," Cassidy held her own but didn't yell.

Now the attention turned to Ulrich. "It was pretty uncool, Ulrich. Why'd ya vote no?"

"Hey, don't look at me. I'm not crazy about William, but he saved us and the factory. He's brave, and he'd make a great Lyoko warrior," Ulrich smiled. "I didn't blackball him."

"If it wasn't you, and it wasn't me, and it wasn't Cassidy, and if it wasn't Jeremie or Aelita, then it was…"

**-Yumi, back inside the house-**

"Sorry William, but I don't think you can be trusted." Yumi closed the curtain as William zipped past on his skateboard.


	36. Things got a little crazy here!

**Well, we are safe to say that we aren't crazy…right?**

**By definition, I do not own Code Lyoko by any means.**

**Cassidy is my OC.**

**-In Sector 5-**

It was just another day of gathering data.

Yumi dodged another few lasers, losing her OverWing in the process. She flipped out her fans, spun with them like a propeller, flipped over, threw one at a Manta, missed, but landed on it, and got rid of it anyway. She ended up falling onto Odd's OverBoard (but that was Odd's intention).

"What took you so long?" she asked. "I almost didn't wait."

"Just having a word with Lucienne," Odd replied.

"Lucienne?" Yumi asked. Was Lucienne one of his many girlfriends?

"Yeah, you know. Lucienne. I love giving nicknames to the monsters I blow to smithereens!" She rolled her eyes. Odd was creative, but he was a little crazy. He launched another laser arrow at a Manta, but missed and got hit, throwing him and his passenger a little off balance.

All of a sudden, a katana hit the underbelly of the beast and it combusted.

They both looked down and saw Ulrich. "'Guess she wasn't too crazy about her name!"

Odd gathered the sword and circled around to the platform. "You ought to take better care of your stuff, Ulrich."

Meanwhile, Aelita was working on the terminal. _"Aelita, I'm trying to collect more data on Franz Hopper, but I can't access the subsystems. Careful! Flying Mantas coming your way at ten o'clock!"_ Jeremie warned.

One Manta shot at the pink-haired girl at the terminal. Aelita prepared for the life point loss, when Ulrich took the shot for her. She and Cassidy bent down to help him.

Everyone took notice. "Jeremie, how's everything going? Because around here, things are kind of…" Yumi took a big hit and devirtualized, Odd had to rebalance himself.

**-Back in the scanners-**

Yumi came out, but finished the sentence. "…heating up."

**-Jeremie-**

"Not great. For now, I don't have any data that tells me how to locate Franz Hopper, I'm afraid. You'll have to hold out a little longer," Jeremie told everyone.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

"Not a big deal for me, Jeremie, amigo," Cassidy nodded. "It's not as if the Schyphozoa has us all trapped here like it did me."

"Easy for you two to say!" Ulrich smarted to the two of them.

She gave him a heavy-metal Gibbs-slap. "Don't bad-mouth us. We're a part of this group too."

Aelita worked her hardest on the interface terminal. "I'm almost there. I'm about ready to access the subsystems."

Odd was avoiding the Mantas (Ethel and Yvette) with enough steam to go. "How many life points do we have left?"

"_Not many. If you get hit by one more Flying Manta, it'll be game over for you, Odd. Same goes for you and Cassidy, Ulrich,"_ Jeremie instructed.

The two hopped, as if by a bond, onto Odd's OverBoard (whom the owner was on). "Buckle up, Shirley and Tanya!" he told his now-two passengers.

"Too bad there aren't seatbelts," Cassidy cracked.

Odd cackled a little as they whizzed by the two Flying Mantas.

The two Mantas turned around, as if to confuse, but the psychic on board realized something was going to go, as the Spanish say, loco or loca. As Odd shot his laser arrows, he commanded, "Ethel, Yvette, get back here right now!"

"Odd, cut it out with your dumb names, huh?" Ulrich deadpanned.

"I think the names are awesome," Cassidy inputted her two-pennies. "But I think something really nutsy-cuckoo will happen real soon in the future."

"Don't tell me you had that recurring nightmare again," Ulrich groaned.

"Nope, it didn't happen today. And it didn't happen last night either."

All of a sudden, the two "lady" Mantas joined at the underbelly and, glowing red, shot a hot red laser at the three on the OverBoard. The two boys preparing for the final blow were surprised that the laser seemed to make a glow. Cassidy didn't seem fazed. _Oh, XANA. You know that I won't fall for your tricks. I'm too psychic for that._

"What's going on here?" Ulrich was startled. "Why aren't we devirtualized?"

"XANA's done something, Ulrich," Cassidy's little intuition kicked in.

The boys took care of the Mantas as soon as they separated, Cassidy trying to make an effort, and then stopped at the interface terminal, but they never stopped glowing red. Aelita was worried. "Huh? What's that?"

"XANA hit us with a ray," the psychic explained a little.

"Beats me. They shot at us and this is what happened," Ulrich shrugged. They looked at each other for a few seconds, but then unexpectedly devirtualized.

**-Back at the Scanner Room-**

Cassidy came out of the scanner first. "Dang lucky that XANA hit us."

Ulrich came next. Jeremie met the three there. "You guys okay? All in one piece I hope."

"A little ticked-off at our evil program, but overall I feel okay," Cassidy gave her report.

"Yeah, I think so!" Ulrich shrugged.

A third voice emanated from the third scanner. "Two great legs, a svelte torso, two little arms, and a good-looking head. No. Nothing missing." Odd came out next.

Cassidy chuckled at that in spite of herself. "Nothing beats the ole Odd Della Robbia humor wagon."

As soon as she moved out of the scanner, Aelita came out. "Jeremie, what happened out there?"

"I wish I knew," Jeremie said.

"Wish granted! XANA hit us with some kind of ray that hasn't affected us yet, and I feel that soon that we'll be hit with unneeded visitors of the weird kind," Cassidy answered the wish.

"I have to look over the quantum sequence to track any possible abnormalities—" ("In English, he has to run a check," Cassidy whispered to Odd.) "—in the access data."

"Do you mind translating that, Einstein," Yumi asked, her friend's obvious computer talk wasn't translating for her.

"He has to carry out a full check," Aelita smiled, chuckling a little.

Odd checked his watch. "Oh, no way. There's no time. We've got rehearsal in exactly five minutes."

"God Almighty. I'm already nervous!" Cassidy had some nervous jiggles in her stomach. She got stage fright real easy. Though she didn't accidentally mistaken a stage prop for a bathroom, her legs would shake real bad and she would speak her part faster than Jeremie speaking for his and Aelita's project on World War I (the two received an A).

Jeremie was just as nervous. "Rehearsal?**!** Oh, no! I completely forgot about it. Chardin's going to _kill us!_"

That added on to Cassidy's fears. "And if I receive a lousy grade, it would lower my semester grade!"

**-As Nicholas bad-mouths the stage and Jim reprimands, let's see how the players come in-**

Ulrich, Aelita, Yumi, Cassidy, Odd, and Jeremie came in. Chardin noticed. "Phew, there you are. Please hurry on. Hurry up."

Chardin got back to his seat and Delmas asked him, "Well, Mr. Chardin. What made you choose 'Cyrano de Bergerac' for this year's performance? The elegance of the text, I imagine. Or the tragedy of un-requited love, perhaps, it appeals to your true but hidden romantic nature?"

But the drama teacher had other things on his mind. "Lack of money."

That confused Mr. Delmas.

"Since we have no choice, we had to use last year's 'Romeo and Juliet' set and the costumes. I had to find another play that had a balcony. So 'Cyrano'!"

"I see."

Everyone got in their positions. Jeremie introduced the scene with a series of taps from a stick.

The play went as so:

Ulrich: "Roxanne!"

*Yumi comes on the balcony*

Yumi: "Who calls me?"

Ulrich: "It is I, Christian!"

Yumi: "Today, your words are hesitant." *She leans on the balcony a little*

Odd: "Night has come. In the dusk they grope their way to find your ear."

Yumi: "But my words find no such impediment."

*Ulrich waves the stick around slowly, emotionally, and dramatically in front of his face and chest to accentuate a little*

Odd: "They find their way once? Oh! Such small wonder that, it is within my heart they find their home. You think how large my heart, how small your ear. And from their fair heights descending, words fall fast, but mine must mount, Madame."

That's where things went loopy. "They need board—LASER ARROWS!" Odd yelled, cocking his arm in a manner that would be needed on Lyoko.

Yumi gasped. That was not part of the script.

He waved his arm from one side to the other.

Cassidy noticed her surroundings were not Earth. But she could almost see through the ruse XANA was creating. _I'm not going to fall for this, XANA._

Back to the play, it went not as well as planned:

Yumi: "Me-thinks that your last words have learned to climb."

*Odd, at this point, straightens up*

Odd: "With practice such gymnastic grows less hard! In truth I seem to speak from distant heights!"

*Yumi notices that he took her line*

Ulrich was not himself either. "Two Kankrelats dead ahead!" He was now facing the audience and positioning the stick he was holding as if he were holding his katana.

Cassidy felt a few urges to go off her rocker, but chose to ignore them. _No! I won't do it! This is just XANA's hallucination trick. It's not real! _**(A/N: Guess the Titan and the Episode who not only said almost all of these words but showed it too for 50 cookies and a look into Sabotage)**

Jeremie saw this and went over to Cassidy. "You okay?"

"XANA's trying to pull a fast one on Odd, Ulrich and me," she whispered into her friend's ear. Her powers told her where she was, who was approaching, and so on. "I'm in hallucination mode, but at the same time, I'm working to keep from acting up."

"You're doing a good job," Aelita complimented.

"It's called willpower, I guess," Cassidy shrugged. "Problem is I don't know how long it will last."

Odd: "True, far above; at such a height 'twere death. If—"

He then got into position again. "Oh, okay, I'll get them!"

Another urge tried to overtake the psychic, but she managed to drown the urge.

The principal stood up and yelled, "Stern! Della Robbia! What are you gobbling about?"

_What are they, turkeys?_ A sly thought entered Cassidy's mind.

"Please, sir, keep it down. Don't you know cutting-edge theater when you see it? It's a modern approach, somewhere between a bold soprano and a deadly karate match," Chardin was impressed with Odd and Ulrich's behavior.

Odd jumped (in the position of firing a couple "arrows") and said, "Take that you old Krabe. Laser—ugh!" He wiped out. "Ulrich, Cassidy, help me, I'm hit!"

"You're not hit, boofhead!" Cassidy came forward. "You just fell on the piso."

"Bravo," Chardin complimented.

"Cassidy, use your claws, or your tube!" Odd called out to his girlfriend.

"I don't have claws or a tube right now. We're not playing that videogame," the psychic warned.

"SUPER SPRINT!" Ulrich cried and jumped off the stage. He was about to attack Sissi when Yumi and Cassidy got in the way.

"Cut it out!" The Japanese girl growled at her boyfriend. "Your gag is not funny—it's lame!"

"And apestosa," Cassidy snarled.

"Yumi? What are you doing? You made me miss the Megatank!" Ulrich was a little confused. Did the two girls end up fighting for XANA now.

Cassidy felt even deeper urges, but kept drowning them.

Aelita got in Odd's way. "Odd, what's gotten into you?" she asked.

"Out of the way, Aelita. I can't see the Krabe!" The ninja-warrior ordered.

The psychic girl was now sweating buckets.

Mr. Delmas was very offended. "This time you've gone too far. One more word out of you and it's a disciplinary committee, ya hear."

Jeremie decided to intervene. "Wait, Mr. Delmas. There's something wrong. Odd isn't himself?"

Odd looked up. "Jeremie? 'XANA have a broken hard disc or what? The Krabe sounds a lot like Delmas."

Cassidy rushed over to Odd. "Jeremie is right here." She pointed. "You must've woken up with a bowl of fruit loops next to you."

"Stop pointing your claws at thin air!"

"My claws are pointing at Jeremie." She held her conviction quite well. She _was_ pointing at Jeremie.

"Odd! Cassidy! Watch out! A Blok at four o'clock!" Ulrich shouted.

The psychic looked. "That's no Blok. That's JIM!" She was bound and determined to keep herself out of the hospital.

"A Blok? You're the blockhead, Stern."

Ulrich elbowed Yumi out of the way and tried to attack Jim, and the psychic suddenly followed suit, her willpower now almost defeated.

Jim caught the boy and the girl. "Quick! Someone call an ambulance! Stern, McGuire, and Della Robbia have totally lost it."

Cassidy's willpower came back. "Jim! You know how scared I am about getting restrained! Remember? That time you had one of the 'safest' equipment accidentally hold me down. And remember how I had cried over Odd's shoulder after that? Please! Let me go!"

**-Later-**

"Jeremie? Reload me! Two Tarantulas are getting the better of us!" Odd yelled from the ambulance.

"My willpower is draining! I'll try to hold on!" Cassidy yelled.

"We're stuck in another of XANA's traps," Ulrich cried out.

"Yumi! Do something!" Odd yelled as the ambulance drove out of there.

"So this is what happens when you spend hours playing videogames and watching cartoons on TV," Mr. Delmas assumed. "Rehearsal is over!"

"Ulrich's right. They are stuck in another of XANA's traps," Aelita was concerned.

"Go follow them to the hospital. I'll see what's happening in the meantime," Jeremie told the two girls.

**-Outside of the hospital room-**

"Did you give them something to calm them down?" Doctor Chantal asked.

Nurse Murphy (who looked and acted the same way as Dr. Chantal) had been transferred to a different hospital due to a promotion. **(A/N: You gotta admit that that can come around)**

The paramedic standing guard nodded and allowed her inside.

"Now, tell me, are you having any problems at the moment?" She asked Odd, Ulrich, and Cassidy.

"No, except for my ex-boyfriend's brutal break-up aftermath still clinging to me like a small monkey on my back, I'm fine," Cassidy answered.

Dr. Chantal wrote Cassidy's answer down. "Are you sleeping well? Nightmares? Restless nights?"

"Depends on the night; if I get a nightmare after entering sleep I end up staying up for the rest of the night," Cassidy shrugged. "Ulrich sleeps fine. Odd does too."

Another write down. "Troubles at school?"

"I'm more of a Straight 'A' girl but usually I get A's and Bs, and the occasional C or D, rarely in Fs," Cassidy's POV showed a Blok, but her powers told her that she was looking at Dr. Chantal.

The pen gently scratched the paper.

"With your parents?"

"My ex tore up my ticket home and back. My parents are mad at him, but not mad at me. I'm glad to say that mis padres are the least of my worries right now," Cassidy said.

Odd and Ulrich lost it, though. The former got into position. "Take that, you rotten old Blok!" He tried to shoot some laser arrows.

"Odd! Watch your manners!" Cassidy sounded appalled.

The doctor wrote the conversation down and muttered some of Odd's words. "Interesting."

"Let me at it!" Ulrich yelled.

"Ulrich, don't!" The trying-not-to-hallucinate psychic girl pleaded.

He attacked anyway, but Dr. Chantal was quick. He had one arm behind Ulrich in instant. "Sorry, young man, but I have a tenth dan in Aikido." She pushed his hand (palm facing his back) forward, causing him to grit his teeth.

"I told you not to, mi amigo," Cassidy breathed.

**-Jeremie's room-**

Jeremie checked on finding a way to cure Cassidy, Ulrich, and Odd. The hallucinations almost worked on Cassidy, and did their work on Ulrich and Odd.

He found out something and picked up the phone to call Yumi.

**-Yumi and Aelita-**

Yumi's phone rang and she picked it up. "Yes, Jeremie?"

"_Yumi, XANA is _definitely_ behind Cassidy, Odd, and Ulrich's madness!"_ Jeremie announced. _"There's only one way to make them normal. And that's to get them into a way tower somewhere on Lyoko. Then I can launch a program to get their heads straight."_

"You mean we have to spring them from the hospital?" Yumi asked, albeit a little incredulous.

"_You got it."_

He cut the line after that.

When they got to the reception, Yumi was first to speak. "Hello, we're here to see Cassidy McGuire, Ulrich Stern, and Odd Della Robbia?"

The receptionist had a bad attitude. "Sorry, but they're all under observation. No visitors allowed." She went back to her comic book.

The two girls looked to each other. This was going to be harder than they thought it would be.

"Thanks a lot. Sorry we interrupted you," Yumi said.

As soon as they were out of earshot but not out of the hospital, Aelita asked, "What do we do now?"

Yumi looked over her friend's shoulder. "Quiet, listen."

"The two young men and the young lady in Room 237 are fighting imaginary enemies they call Bloks, Megatanks, and XANA," Dr. Chantal told the doctor.

He laughed. "Where do they get such crazy names from? What do you think Professor Hornet?"

"Typical of today's youth," Professor Hornet said.

"Now we know what room they're in!" Yumi told Aelita, unheard from the doctors' earshot.

They went over but saw a guard. "Leave him to me," The Japanese teen told the pink-haired girl.

Soon Yumi was walking as if blind to the guard. "Oh, excuse me, ma'am?"

"Do you need any help?" he asked.

"I—I'm looking for my room…Room…uh…217," Yumi said, following the advice of her friend Cassidy.

"Come with me," He led her down the hallway, leaving Aelita free to go inside.

As she entered, she saw Cassidy meditating while Odd and Ulrich were in restraints.

"Aelita, you came at last," Cassidy smiled as she opened her eyes and hopped over to her friend's side.

"Aelita! Watch out for the Krabes!" Odd warned.

"What Krabes?" she wondered.

"Play along. I'm starting to hallucinate, too, here," Cassidy whispered in her ear.

"Energy field!" Aelita obeyed.

Odd and Ulrich struggled and screamed as Aelita undid Odd's restraint. "That's one down."

"Nice job, that Krabe just wouldn't let go of me. I think it was love at first bite," Odd joked as Cassidy chuckled a little.

**-With Yumi-**

"Here you are, Room 217," the guard told Yumi.

"Thanks for showing me the way," she told the guard.

Thankfully for Yumi, the room was empty…until another patient came in, writhing in miserable pain with the doctors coming right behind him.

She sought the opportunity to escape right then.

She ran until she met up with Aelita, Odd, Ulrich, and Cassidy. "Yumi, now that you're here we can go to the activated tower." Aelita winked at Yumi, giving her a hint.

"Oh, right, yeah, well, sure, let's get going then," Yumi affirmed.

"I warn you now; we'll be in a high speed chase, soon. No monsters around for now," Cassidy suddenly said.

Aelita and Yumi shared a confused look, but shrugged.

**-Jeremie's room-**

He worked on the program. "Okay, I sure hope that this is going to work."

**-Back where the rest of the Lyoko Warriors are-**

They were nearing the entrance when Dr. Chantal dropped her coffee cup, confused and surprised.

Everyone was alerted to the sound.

"Where do you think you're going?" she asked.

Cassidy found it better than to answer this time.

"The Blok's caught up with us!" Odd said as he cocked his arm.

Aelita put a hand on his shoulder. "No time!"

They all burst out of the hospital with such speed.

The door stopped the doctor, but then she gained exit. But it was too late. The three patients and their two friends were gone. She whipped out her cell phone. "Hello, is this police headquarters?"

**-Jeremie-**

Jeremie saw that the Core of Lyoko was being attacked.

"Oh, no, that's all we needed. The Core's being attacked," He was on the phone at the ready to call Yumi. "Come on. Will you pick up?" he was in a panic already.

**-Back to the escapees and their friends-**

Yumi's phone rang, and she picked it up.

"Yes, Jeremie…okay, we're on our way!" she hung up. "XANA is attacking the Core of Lyoko."

Cassidy's ears picked up a sound and the owner gasped. "The policía is coming for _us!_"

**-Jeremie-**

"I hope they get here in time!" That was on top of Jeremie's prayers at that point.

**-Back to the Lyoko Warriors-**

The five ran across a street. "Just a little further. The tower's not that far now," Aelita assured as the sirens grew louder.

As Cassidy predicted, a police car came. Yumi pointed at some stairs. "That way!"

"Yep," Cassidy nodded.

"Go on! I'll take care of the Megatank!" Ulrich made a move.

"No!" Cassidy yelled. "Ulrich, that's not a Megatank!"

"Ulrich, NO!" Yumi panicked.

Unheeding the two girls' attempts to stop him, Ulrich ran in front of and jumped the police car, causing the drivers to jackknife and stop in front of T.V.'s news van. Thomas Vincent came out with a microphone to the driver and said, "Well, tell us how it feels like to be part of the evening news."

That confused the driver, but at least Ulrich was safe.

Cassidy rushed up to him, grabbed him roughly by the arm, pulled him to safety, and said, "Are you _suicidal_, you boofhead? You could have gotten yourself killed, to XANA's delight! That was NOT a MEGATANK!"

"That should take care of them!" Ulrich smiled.

Growling, Cassidy gave Ulrich the second heavy metal Gibbs-slap in the same day. Unfortunately that didn't jog Ulrich's senses as he gave her one back. "Stop thinking this is Earth!"

Cassidy obeyed. A smile spread across her face as she cheered, "Way to go, Ulrich!"

**-Lab-**

Jeremie watched the progress of the shield layers. "Where can they be?"

As if to answer his question, Odd, Ulrich, Aelita, Yumi, and Cassidy arrived.

"Ah, there you are. It's about time. Only one more shield layer protecting the Core of Lyoko." He came with the two boys and the three girls. Yumi pressed the down button.

As they rode down, Odd called to the ceiling. "Jeremie, would you mind sending me the OverBoard? Because I'm getting tired of running around."

"And I'll go with him. I'm tired of running, too," Cassidy showed a tired look.

"What happened to her?" Jeremie asked. She didn't run with her hallucinations earlier.

"Ulrich jogged the hallucinations a little too much," Yumi explained.

"Any idea how we can get them into the scanners?" Aelita asked.

"Leave it to me, Aelita," he said warmly.

The three (Odd, Ulrich, and Cassidy) looked at the towers.

"Okay, guys, you made it there. Now head for that way tower," he called to them.

The samurai nodded. "Right."

Odd took one scanner. Ulrich took the second, and Cassidy took the third.

Soon the three were on Lyoko, but to them, they were on Earth. Cassidy finally shook out of it. "Yeesh, Ulrich, if you are going to slap me, then get a grip."

But Ulrich and Odd didn't seem to notice. Soon Yumi was on Lyoko.

"Well, it's empty out here, not a kid in sight," Odd said.

"This may look like reality, but it's only an illusion," Cassidy then went off on a Memory-Lane spiel that would take forever to explain.

About fifty-seven seconds into the spiel, Yumi hit the psychic with the wood of her fan. "Focus."

"Oops, sorry!" The girl gave a little wan smile.

"'Guess they're all in the lunchroom," Ulrich assumed.

"Uh, yeah," Yumi only half-played along.

Aelita soon landed on Lyoko's Ice Sector.

"This is getting worse and worse, now the boys think they're at the Academy. Listen you two, you head for the way tower, I'll head for the Core of Lyoko," Yumi said to them.

"I'm still in the same land as Ulrich and Odd, but we'll get there. Be careful, Yumi. Buena suerte," Cassidy said.

"Got it," Aelita said.

They turned to the two boys and headed the lead. "Let's go to the um…lunchroom," Aelita suggested as the two girls started running.

"I'M STARVING!" Odd's reply rang out.

"Just so you know Odd, they're serving spaghetti and meatballs," Cassidy sang as a side-note.

"Let's go!" Odd smiled.

"_Welcoming Committee straight ahead,"_ Jeremie sounded grim.

"One Tarantula and two Kankrelats," Cassidy whispered to Aelita.

"_Be careful, Aelita and Cassidy,"_ Jeremie told the girls.

As predicted the Tarantula and two Kankrelats stood in the way. Cassidy and Aelita stopped and the former asked, "Okay, where's my tail?"

"Huh?"

"I'm still seeing Earth, Aelita. Where is it?"

Aelita handed Cassidy her weapon. "Better?"

"Much!"

Odd and Ulrich, however, kept moving forward, unperturbed by the sight of the three monsters. They, along with the psychic, were seeing Sissi, Hervé, and Nicholas.

Aelita and Cassidy tried to stop them.

"I don't believe it!" Aelita shook her head in disbelief.

"Me neither. At least after the effects of this are cured and the Core is defended, we can go back in time," Cassidy nodded.

The Tarantula stood ready to fire.

"Hey, Sissi. 'In a bad mood? 'Break the scale this morning?" Odd joked.

As the same as the rehearsal, Cassidy felt deep urges, but decided against them.

"No," Aelita cried.

"This has got to be the craziest thing since the time Odd nearly killed you on the OverBoard," Cassidy thought aloud.

But the pink-haired girl conjured up an Ice Wall that the boys bumped into. Odd and Ulrich put their hands on the wall and tried to push through. They couldn't.

"What's this?" Ulrich asked.

"Did they put Sissi and her pals in a display case or what?" Odd asked.

They felt along the Ice Wall. The monsters on the other side were shooting at it. Aelita, knowing the Wall wouldn't last long, ran up as it began to crack, as did Cassidy, and shoved the two boys down when the Wall was destroyed.

**-Meanwhile with Yumi-**

Yumi had made it to the edge of the sector. "Jeremie, I'm here, at the edge of the sector. Can you send me a taxi?"

"_You bet. A big white-stretch limo is on the way,"_ Jeremie sounded confident.

Soon the Transporter arrived and whisked her away.

**-Back to the others-**

Odd and Ulrich were a little disoriented, but were fine. Ulrich asked, "Who's the dork that pushed me into Sissi's arms?"

Cassidy giggled. "I did. Just for humor though."

Aelita charged up an energy field, calling her attack and getting one of the Kankrelats.

"Good work, Aelita," Cassidy nodded.

**-Sector 5-**

Yumi made it into Sector 5. "Jeremie, I'm in the Core Zone!"

"_Okay, Yumi, great. The countdown started. You have less than one minute to activate the key,"_ Jeremie told her.

"Okay!"

She ran off to find and trip the key for the countdown.

**-Back on the Ice Sector-**

Aelita charged up another Energy Field and shot it at the last Kankrelat. "Energy Field."

"'Energy Field?'" Odd asked. "'You think we are on Lyoko or something?"

"Um…in all truth, we are, Odd," Cassidy turned to Odd with truth swimming in her eyes.

Aelita put up her Energy Shield, but then got shot in the leg. The last monster stood up and shot at everyone. Ulrich got hit in the arm, and he cried out. "Something just stung me."

"Tarantula lasers can sting, Ulrich." Cassidy shot at the beast with her gun.

**-Back to Yumi-**

"_Better hurry up, Yumi. You only got ten seconds left!"_ Jeremie warned.

And as he counted down, Yumi found the mechanism and stopped the countdown.

"_Nice job, Yumi! Now head for the Celestial Dome."_

"I'm on my way," Yumi informed him.

"_I'm programming your OverWing,"_ Jeremie told her.

**-Back to the four on the Ice Sector-**

Aelita used her Energy Shields to block some of the shots. She then had an idea. She told Cassidy to stop shooting and used her Creativity to make the Tarantula plummet to its death.

"I know where I'm headed," Cassidy automatically ran and jumped across the chasm, landing perfectly on the other side.

"That way! Hurry up!" Aelita told the boys.

"No! The lunchroom is that way," Odd pointed behind him.

Cassidy sighed.

So did Aelita. "Listen to me, both of you! You're going to do exactly as I say and no questions. You got that?"

The psychic cheered, impressed. "You go, Aelita!"

"Okay," Ulrich said.

"Okay," Odd followed suit.

"That's better," Cassidy yelled.

**-Meanwhile-**

Yumi had entered into the entrance to the Core of Lyoko. "Jeremie, I'm in the Dome."

**-Back to Aelita, Cassidy, Odd, and Ulrich-**

Cassidy had already entered the tower.

Aelita was definitely taking matters into her own hands. "Now get in there. That's an order."

The two boys stood at attention. "Ma'am, yes, ma'am."

As soon as they were in the tower, Jeremie entered the program. _"I hope this works."_

"Go for it!" Cassidy said.

**-With Yumi-**

Yumi stopped her vehicle and tripped the stair mechanism. She jumped a few steps and saw the Mantas attacking the Core's last shield layer.

**-Jeremie-**

"Let's see if this program is operational."

**-Back to Lyoko's Ice Sector way tower-**

Soon the boys and the psychic were seeing the inside of the tower.

"How do you guys feel?" Aelita asked.

"We're seeing Lyoko at last," Cassidy smiled.

"Fine, but what are we doing inside a way tower?" Ulrich asked.

"I don't get it. Shouldn't we be in the lunchroom?" Odd was just as confused as Ulrich.

"I'll explain later," Aelita smiled. She looked up to the ceiling. "Jeremie, it worked."

"The Core! We have to get to it NOW!" Cassidy panicked. "Yumi's there on her own."

**-Back to Yumi-**

Two Mantas saw Yumi and dived down. Yumi went up the steps and shielded herself from the laser fire.

She threw her fans at them. But the two got thrown off course and back to their owner. She caught them, leaping back a step, took a shot, then was hanging off the edge, but she climbed back up.

"Jeremie, it looks like I'm going to need some help!"

"_It's on the way. By now, Ulrich, Odd, Cassidy, and Aelita should be close to Sector 5, Yumi,"_ Jeremie said.

**-To the four-**

The Transporter took Odd, Ulrich, Cassidy, and Aelita to Sector 5. Soon they made it to the Arena.

"_Hurry up! Yumi needs your help,"_ Jeremie told them.

"We're on it!" Cassidy smiled.

They rushed to get to Yumi.

**-To Yumi-**

"_Yumi, the last protective shield layer is about ready to go!"_ Jeremie told her.

"I'm doing all I can!" she told him.

Yumi threw one at one Manta and was successful. That left two Mantas. One of them hit Yumi's fan super hard that it nearly blurred her vision. She tried to grab the returning fan, but missed, and tried to hit the one, missing it.

She tried dodging the lasers coming for her, but was devirtualized. But the four had finally come.

The Manta, thinking it did its job, went back up and started shooting at the final shield layer. Odd got rid of it. "YAHOO!" He hooted with glee.

"_Be careful, all of the Core's shield layers are gone,"_ Jeremie told them._ "If it takes one more hit, just one, Lyoko will be gone for good."_

"We're doing our best, Jeremie," Cassidy sighed. She could detect the selfish, Pyrrhic victory inside of XANA and the Lyoko Warriors.

"_And you guys along with it,"_ Jeremie continued.

"Aw, great," Ulrich sighed.

"That's better," Cassidy noted.

Aelita, who took the lead, saw the Manta about to fire, and, with a cry of "NO", she flung herself in the middle of the core and the Manta, firing off an energy field at the monster, while getting hit and devirtualized at the same time.

That got rid of the Manta.

Odd joined Ulrich and Cassidy. "Yeah!"

"_Nice work, guys!"_ Jeremie complimented. _"Time to bring you back in."_

"Bring us home now, please, maestro," Cassidy smiled.

**-Later-**

The three came out of the scanners. "Well?" Yumi asked.

"I'm fine," Cassidy smiled.

"Well what? LASER ARROW!" Odd got into position.

The three girls gasped.

"Naw, just kidding, ladies," Odd put down his arm.

Aelita and Yumi didn't think it was funny. "Very funny," they said sarcastic notes in their words.

Cassidy was the only one that chuckled.

"_Right, well, it's a good thing that while _some_ people are clowning around, others keep working,"_ Jeremie told the others.

Jeremie then activated the return trip.

**-Back to the play-**

Yumi: "Me-thinks that your last words have learned to climb."

Odd: "With practice such gymnastic grows less hard!"

Yumi: "In truth, I seem to speak from distant heights."

Odd: "True, far above; at such a height 'twere death  
if a hard word from you fell upon my heart."

Chardin stood up. "Stop, stop, stop."

"Are we really that bad?" Cassidy asked in a worried tone of voice.

"It's not bad. But you're not there! Not just yet. You're missing a bit more…" Chardin was trying to think of the appropriate word to say.

"More passion?" Ulrich asked.

"No. no. Some…"

"Some…popcorn?" Jim suggested.

"No!" Chardin said flatly.

"Some more funding?" The principal was next to say something.

"That'd be good, but a…"

"A touch of insanity?" Odd figuratively put in the last needed puzzle piece in the puzzle.

"Exactly! Yes!" Chardin's eyes showed a spark. "That's it!"

Everyone in the Lyoko Warrior group burst into laughter.


	37. The Mighty Building Escape

**This episode was completely fan-made and does not appear in the show between Temporary Insanity and Sabotage. This fan just genuinely wanted to do something that inspired her in Spanish class. **

**The Spanish activity that she did involved a combined sentence:**

**English Translation: You are putting on makeup and Jeremie, Ulrich, Odd, and I are escaping from the building with some broken ankles.**

**Español Translación: Est****á****s pint****á****ndote y Jeremie, Ulrich, Odd, y yo se estamos escapando del edificio con unos tobillos rotos.**

**Code Lyoko isn't mine in the first place. But Cassidy and this episode's plot are mine.**

**The Mighty Building Escape**

"Well, Odd, _this_ has got to be the worst predicament I've ever been in!" Cassidy grumbled.

Cassidy and Odd, along with Jeremie and Ulrich, were stuck in a building. They knew it wasn't the factory, but they didn't know that the building was old and might be falling apart.

Jeremie disappointedly snapped his fingers. "Darn it! No connection to the Internet." He was using his laptop.

"That's bad news. No Internet connection means we can't send a distress email," Cassidy brought up. She, Ulrich, and Jeremie were sitting on the ground.

"Try bringing up the super-scan. XANA might be up to this," Ulrich suggested.

Jeremie tried with no success. "The Supercomputer's inaccessible."

"Meaning…?"

"We can't reach the Supercomputer!"

"That's just great!" Cassidy shouted, making some dust fall on the floor. "Trapped in a building with no connections to either the Supercomputer or the Internet!" She tried for bars on her cell phone but found none. "And we can't call anyone for an SOS!"

Odd, the only one standing, tried to comfort her, but…he tripped on her. "OW!"

"What?" Cassidy lost her agitation.

"My ankle hurts!" Odd griped.

"Is this some kind of trick?" She rolled up one of Odd's pant legs and felt around his ankle. He yipped…and it wasn't an entire fake-out.

"He's serious," Ulrich stood up, being careful to step around her.

"Well, this stinks! Now we have an invalid," Cassidy, with the exception of school, hated to be in an enclosed building for more than five hours.

Odd painstakingly turned over. "At least Aelita and Yumi aren't trapped with us."

"Where are they anyway?" Ulrich asked.

"A small GNO," Cassidy answered. "They deserve it, though. Going to Lyoko really tuckered them out. Yumi is treating Aelita to a spa trip. They'll be there until domingo."

"Sunday?" Jeremie understood the psychic's second language.

"The spa has a hotel beside it. They took off Friday while you weren't looking to get to it Saturday. Besides, they'll be fine. A GNO is a GNO."

"Why didn't you go?" Ulrich sat back down again.

"'Accidentally said no," she shook her head. "Stupid decision on my end. I promised to go with them on Friday."

"Feeling the strain, too, Cassidy?" Jeremie patted her back.

All of a sudden, Cassidy spark-flashed and pushed Jeremie out of the way. "Cuidado!" A rather large pipe fell on her right ankle. "YOW!"

After the dust cleared and they got Cassidy free from the pipe, Odd muttered, "Talk about irony."

"Oh, shut it, Odd!" she spat sourly as she sat next to him.

"Okay, Jeremie, we need to get out of here and get help," Ulrich told him.

"You're not leaving without us!" She was adamant, but on the other hand, she had strong ears.

"You're not going to get anywhere with that bad ankle," Jeremie was also as firm.

"The team that gets trapped together escapes together."

"You'll harm yourself even more if you jostle that ankle." Ulrich was getting agitated. Not only was the psychic acting as if not in pain, she was acting stubborn and getting on his nerves.

"Okay, this is getting nowhere," Jeremie said.

"Cat-Girl, you and I are in no shape to walk," Odd tried to console.

But she was too in shock to listen. Calling 911 was not an option.

Jeremie stood up. "I just want to look around. Maybe I can find some parts to make a big stretcher. That way we can carry Odd and Cassidy out."

"100 pounds plus Odd's meager 80?" Ulrich sounded skeptical.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Cassidy protested. "That I'm too heavy?"

"Yes?" Ulrich said a tad awkward.

"Well excuse me for being una chica," she was definitely having a bad day.

"Ulrich, let her cool down!" Odd stated.

Jeremie took the time to leave the three to find the parts needed to construct a makeshift stretcher.

After trying to calm Cassidy down, Odd found something to occupy himself. Cassidy's _Black Beauty_ book. She brought it along just to have something to do. Now Odd was reading it.

Ulrich stood up again and supervised the injured couple.

"I hate this," Cassidy got out of shock.

"Take it easy, girl! Jeremie's going to try and make a stretcher," Ulrich soothed. "Plus, you did save his life a few seconds ago."

"It was better me than him!"

"I wonder sometimes why you insist on saving our lives when sometimes you put the danger on yourself," Odd flipped a page.

"Blame my powers. Sometimes they tell me what to do."

"Bossy powers," Ulrich quipped.

"Don't get me started," She pulled out her visions book and wrote down her latest notes.

"Hey, let me take a look at that," Ulrich smiled.

"Might as well show you. I warn you, my visions range from the most embarrassing to the silliest and more enjoyable." She handed it over.

Ulrich sat down and reviewed it. On the first page, he blushed. Cassidy noticed. "What?"

He showed the picture. It was Ulrich and Yumi in their first Pencak Silat class together. They were blushing.

"If you want to know, I never left Yolanda's office."

"Then how?" Ulrich asked.

"Psychic powers, remember? The 'bossy' ones?"

"Oh." Then he blushed deeper when he turned the page. "Sissi discovered LYOKO?**!**"

"For a short while, yeah, but a return trip erased her memory," Cassidy's eyes went a hint light.

"Whoa! Did she rat on us?"

"When she woke up from that electric attack, she did. At least I stopped her from coming a second time."

"A second time?"

"You know I have no idea when I say 'second time,' 'this time,' or 'again'." She rubbed her head a little.

"What is it?"

"Headache."

"We'll get out of here, soon," Ulrich promised.

"Well, it better be soon. My sore ankle's numb," Cassidy said.

"WHAT?**!**"

"Kidding, Samurai. It's still sore, but I can still feel my toes."

Ulrich nudged her arm. "Odd's still rubbing off on you, isn't he?"

"Unfortunately, yeah," Cassidy smiled. "I can't help it. The first day we met and already I was laughing at all his jokes."

Ulrich remembered that day often. "And I couldn't believe that you thought that he was funny."

"Hey! I make great jokes, so there!" Odd shouted.

"Did I miss anything?" Jeremie had come back.

"Not much," Ulrich shook his head a little. "Did you find the parts."

"Some, but I think it should be enough," Jeremie showed the parts. A big, flat piece of metal was set before the four friends. Ulrich stared at it with wide eyes. "How'd ya carry it?"

"It wasn't that heavy. It's lightweight."

"Will it carry Odd and Cassidy?"

"I sure hope so," Jeremie nodded.

"That's what we have to go with at the moment," Cassidy sighed.

"Wait a minute! Maybe we should ask Cassidy where to go," Odd winced as Ulrich picked the former up.

"What do I look like, a map?" she asked. "My senses are only good for the future."

"Try."

She groaned and sent her senses out. _Give me a schematic, please._ She tried hard, then she, exhausted and more headache-y than ever, sighed. "We should go right, and then left. The hallway we went through should give us should be able to give us the way to the exit. If not, then I tried."

Then Cassidy was loaded on the makeshift stretcher.

"Here we go," Jeremie didn't sound excited. "Ready, Ulrich?"

"Let's get out of here, Einstein," Ulrich responded.

They lifted the two with ease. "Whoa, Jeremie. That's really swell magic you got there!" Cassidy was impressed.

"The metal isn't sagging with the weight either," Odd noted.

"Let's get out of her, Odd," she was ready for some ice for her ankle.

**-A few minutes later-**

The four of the group were in the infirmary. Jeremie had not gained any injury, but was kind of dizzy, so he had to rest.

Odd and Cassidy only had bruised ankles, but they had to be put on ice.

Only Ulrich was unscathed.

Aelita and Yumi came back on Sunday to find Jeremie in his room, but only Ulrich was seen.

"What happened to Odd and Cassidy?" Aelita asked, concerned.

Jeremie told the truth. "…and they had ankle injuries and had to go to the infirmary."

"At least it wasn't anything worse," Ulrich told them.

"Well, at least they are in good hands," Yumi said.


	38. We landed into some Serious Sabotage!

**Wow, did we end up in some serious sabotage. **

**You know the drill; don't own Code Lyoko, do own Cassidy.**

**To Kameo: The Mighty Building Escape was supposed to be a go-between. I know it doesn't have anything to do with the story. I can see that. I forgive you but still, I got unintentionally inspired by my Spanish thing. Plus I didn't feel the drive for this chapter when I needed it. So the go-between was for a break, to get my drive back.**

**-Lyoko's Mountain Sector-**

Yumi jumped up and tried to kill a Krabe. But the monster dodged and Yumi had to catch her fan. Dodging using a variety of flips, she saw Ulrich doing battle with a Tarantula and Odd doing war with another Krabe.

"Odd, how are you doing?" Ulrich asked.

"SHIELD!" He called out, shielding his upper body with a small, light purple force field. He shot a couple more arrows to the Krabe. "I'm just about through with Norbert."

"Something tells me that Norbert is a girl in the Harry Potter world," Cassidy winked at her boyfriend. **(A/N: No, she didn't predict the 7****th**** book like that. She's talking about in the 1****st**** Harry Potter film. Norbert's sounds sounded too feminine. That's all I'm going to say on the issue.)**

Cassidy was trying her best to get Aelita to the tower.

"Odd, don't tell me you're still giving them stupid names," Ulrich ran behind his enemy, thanks to his Super Sprint.

"Do you have any idea on what attack it is, Jeremie?" Aelita asked.

"_No, but with Cassidy with us, she ought to know,"_ Jeremie was confident.

"He possessed Michael Rouiller, the gardener, and…ugh! GOD, I can't access the rest. XANA's cerrió con llave my visions again," Cassidy was getting agitated.

"Is that all? Look at your costume!" Odd pointed out.

"Huh?" she looked down and saw that her costume had been tricked out in a tint of pink brighter than Aelita's costume. She didn't mind it though. "As long as I'm able to fight is my main concern."

"That's true," Yumi panted, trying to get rid of the Krabe.

"And when Odd checks in, XANA checks out!" Odd tried to jump the Krabe but then he froze. "Hey! That's not fair, guys!" he was able to say.

Ulrich used his saber to defend himself from the Tarantula's lasers. "Uh, oh. What's wrong?" he worried.

"XANA's done something to the supercomputer, but it isn't a bug in the devirtualization program like he did a few months ago," Cassidy tried to move her senses forward. "If only he didn't put a padlock on my powers. Otherwise, I would know about this bug!"

"I don't know. I can't move!" Odd was still in the air, frozen.

"I'm coming! SUPER SPRINT!" Ulrich tried to get to him, but then "teleported" in front of the Tarantula's laser arm.

He was then devirtualized by the monster he was battling.

"Jeremie, we got a problem," Yumi told her genius friend.

"_I see it, but I can't figure it out,"_ Jeremie told them.

Odd had his own problems. "Norbert, you're not gonna…" But the Krabe did its job devirtualizing him.

It and the Tarantula turned on Yumi and Cassidy. The pink cat warrior spark-flashed a vision. "Yumi, don't go backwards."

But that was a message received too late. Yumi ended up freezing and thawing out in a nanosecond.

"Aelita, we'll try to distract them away from you," Yumi and Cassidy ran in the middle of the fray. Yumi threw her fan, but it bugged and missed the Krabe.

Cassidy tried to shoot a bullet at the only Tarantula but ended up stuck in midair. She had only one thing to say. "Aw, crud."

The monster took the time to shoot at the hapless psychic and devirtualize her.

Yumi tried to catch her fan but it went through her hand and she froze. The Krabes had a chance to devirtualize the last bodyguard as they shot at her.

Aelita had to make haste to the activated tower and fast. She ran until one of the Krabes managed to get in front of her. They both started to flash and bug up.

"_The Krabe is bugged up, too. Go for it,"_ Jeremie told the now-solo Lyoko Warrior. She ran under it and entered the tower.

She rose up and entered the Lyoko Code as Jeremie complimented her. _"Great job, Aelita. Nice one."_

**-Later-**

"That was so weird! As if everything bugged up," Aelita explained.

"And I was about to get my groove on with that Tarantula before it ran away for some unknown reason," Cassidy sighed.

"I don't know what could've happened," Jeremie said.

"Something about Michael Rouiller, but I don't have a clue thanks to the padlock on my powers." The resident psychic shook her head rigorously as if to try to overthrow the block.

"Of course that could've been XANA's attack."

"Partially, Jeremie, partially."

Odd had some joke to say. "What, that's all you two can come up with? Hey, you know, you two better start working on your A-Game."

"My powers are my A-Game, Odd, sweetie," Cassidy smiled. Then she spark-flashed a vision. "Got to jet. I have to do something real quick!"

She turned to go when Yumi stopped her. "Really? With what?"

"It'll help Jeremie pass boys' room inspection."

After she left, Ulrich quipped to Odd, "I guess that was your A-Game against Norbert or Norberta."

_Ulrich, he wasn't even close to finishing that game with the Krabe,_ Cassidy's words scolded.

"I've got some routine checks to carry out, just to be sure it was XANA's attack," Jeremie informed the missing-by-one-member gang. "Hurry on without me, I'll catch up."

"Can I have your portion?" Odd asked; his eyes with the look of a hopeful maniac.

Jeremie nodded and the ninja cheered. "FANTASTIC! SHEPARD'S PIE TONIGHT!"Odd ran to the elevator with a smile on his face.

"Yeah, and it's also boys' dorm inspection, so don't be too long, Jeremie," Ulrich reminded.

"This will take a few minutes. That's all," Jeremie told the group.

Kiwi wanted to go back to the dorms with Odd, but he couldn't bring him back.

"No, Kiwi, tonight, you stay here. The last thing we need is for Jim to find you. My little diggity dog," he told the dog.

**-Jim's speech-**

Jim gave a speech about how clean rooms have a good effect on sleep. Meanwhile, Cassidy was trying to clean Jeremie's room the best of her abilities, making sure anything that was trash was thrown away, keeping files from entering the pile.

"Hey, where's Belpois?" Cassidy flinched as Jim yelled her friend's last name.

She had to calm down to work again. After she gave the room the okay, she looked under the door crack. Jim was standing in front of the room she was cleaning. _Go away, Jim. Please, please, go away._

As if by magic, Jim moved away from the door. Cassidy tried to keep herself from gasping. _Did I just do that? Let me try again to see if this isn't a total fluke._ She found Odd in front of his and Ulrich's dorm. _Grab my iPod from my room, Odd, and send it to Jeremie's room._

Odd started to stray, until Ulrich grabbed his arm. "What are you doing, Odd? Do you want Jim to notice your absence, too? Where the heck are you going?"

Underneath the door crack, Cassidy could see that Odd had a strange look in his eyes.

She smiled and almost cackled. This was the most fun she had had at Kadic since the time she creamed Sissi's team in volleyball. Luckily Yumi was on her (Cassidy's) side so there wasn't conflict.

She let go of the control—she had had her fun—and Odd shook his head. "What the heck!" he yelled.

Jim turned to Odd. "Della Robbia, perhaps you might know where your friend Belpois is."

"In the Bathroom, Jim," Ulrich covered for his recently crazier-than-normal-turned-back-to-just-crazy friend.

"What?**!** You mean, all this time?" Jim asked them.

"The Shepherd's pie doesn't agree with him," Odd came back.

Jim gave them a suspicious look.

**-Back at ze lab-**

Jeremie was working hard on what was the problem. He clicked and clacked on the keys until he heard something beep. Kiwi, who was asleep under him, opened one eye and whined a little.

"What's all this stuff about?" Jeremie asked himself.

He typed some more and saw that some of the data was red.

"Uh-oh, it's getting weirder."

He went down to the Super-Calculator room and opened some of the supercomputer's hard-drive disks. They were rectangular, and some of them had some dirty substance on them.

"But I don't believe it. This is sabotage! Somebody _has_ been in here," he realized.

He went over to watch the surveillance footage in the lab. He saw, as Cassidy predicted, Michael Rouiller messing with some of the supercomputer chips by rubbing electricity on them.

"Oh, no!"

**-The next morning in the cafeteria-**

"It was sabotage last night!" Cassidy realized with a bang of her fist. "Curse you, XANA, for locking mis poderes!"

"That's what yesterday's attack was," Jeremie told the group. The psychic nodded her head to what the genius was saying. "And the bugs that kept you from fighting are caused by the drop in the calculating capacity of the Supercomputer."

"What a mess, do you think you can fix it?" Yumi asked.

"He'll try, but first Jim has to inspect Jeremie's dorm, which I helped clean to hopefully perfection," the psychic nodded.

"But I've got to do it fast or else we're going to be in big trouble, guys," Jeremie took a bite out of his croissant.

"We are? How come?" Ulrich asked.

"If we don't do it fast, the Supercomputer will slow down, causing major problems in about three hours," Cassidy told Ulrich.

"Are you absolutely sure that the whole thing will be destroyed?" Aelita asked.

"Definitely, it's already lost a lot of speed. I'd even launched a return to the past to see—no way," Jeremie told everyone, including Aelita. "I've gotta pick up some stuff from my room. Then I'm going to head back over. As for your classes, I can think of some phony excuses!"

"My 'sulking' excuse was golden, Jeremie. It gotten you out of science class that day you were in Limbo." Cassidy felt bit in the heart. "And Yumi and I have a field trip with Chardin. He's taking us to see an exhibit. Lo sentimos, Jeremie. And don't forget Jim. He needs to see your room."

The two tenth graders went out of the cafeteria.

Jim yelled out for Jeremie's name and found him. "I've been looking everywhere for you last night. Yours is the only room I haven't inspected last night. Get up. Go on. On your feet now!"

**-In the next scene-**

"So, you can't eat Shepherd's Pie either, huh?" Jim off-handedly asked Jeremie.

The genius of the group looked to the others following. "What is he talking about?"

Odd waved his hand. "Never mind!" he whispered.

Jim opened the door to his room and found it very tidy. Caught by surprise, he asked, "Wow, Belpois, did you do this by yourself?"

"Well, I did have some help from Aelita and Cassidy. I didn't do it alone," Jeremie came up with a creative excuse on the fly. He handed Aelita a box while Jim wasn't looking and gave her the "sh" finger.

Jim looked around the room. "You have really good friends, Belpois, though there is one thing I can see…"

"Uh-oh," Odd copied Jeremie's thought.

"You need to dust and vacuum. Otherwise, you pass inspection," Jim told Jeremie.

"Yes, sir," The genius of the group nodded to the gym teacher.

**-The next scene-**

"There's no way Jim's going to get off Jeremie's back until he's through with the minor cleaning-up details," Ulrich pushed through the doorway.

"Yeah, and in three hours it's bye-bye Supercomputer," Odd agreed.

Aelita came through the doorway. "Maybe I can fix it. Maybe that's what Jeremie meant when he gave me this box." She indicated the box that Jeremie gave her.

"Do you think you can do it?" Ulrich asked her.

"At least I can try to limit the damage. Besides we don't have much of a choice," she told them.

Odd instantly disagreed with the idea.

"You go to class and say I got sick from…um… the Shepherd's Pie." Aelita rushed down the stairs with the box in her hands. "I'll let you know if I come up with anything."

"Okay," Odd said.

"I'm off."

"Good luck, Princess."

"Thanks!"

**-Yumi and Cassidy's class-**

Cassidy's eyes became instantly white. Yumi smacked her arm and she came back to reality. "You okay, Cassidy?"

"A bad feeling that includes Odd and Jeremie in some ways," the psychic shook her head. "I must call them." She whipped out her cell phone and called Odd.

"_You've reached Odd the Great, the Brave, the Magnificent! What do you need?"_ Odd picked up.

"Odd, honey, I have a psychic notion that you and Jeremie are going to get 'tied up' somewhere in the near future. Please believe me."

"_Okay, Cat-Girl, calm down. I believe you. Don't get so worked up. I'm sure that we'll get untied later on."_

"Okay, thanks Odd," she hung up and called Jeremie. She tried twice until… _"Yes?"_

"Jeremie, um…listen, whatever it is I'm going to tell you, you gotta believe me," she stammered a little.

"_Just tell me. I'll believe you. This isn't like that fight we had last year about Aelita,"_ Jeremie said.

"I have a notion that in the near future, you and Odd are going to get 'tied up' somewhere. I don't know what material is going to do that, but you and Odd will," she stayed calm that time.

"_I'll take your word for it,"_ Jeremie told her.

"Okay, thanks." They both hung up.

Chardin came up and William said as a bus went by, "Uh, sir, the bus is late. When is it going to come?"

"There isn't any. We are going to walk, anything for art," Chardin said as they walked.

**-The next scene-**

Jeremie had found **an activated tower** while dusting off his table.

**-Factory-**

Kiwi, now in the "cushy chair", woke up to see Aelita coming into the Lab with the box in hand. She made her way to where the doggie was and noticed that the super-scan had picked up an activated tower.

Kiwi barked.

"Oh, no, an activated tower!" Aelita lightly tapped on the keys and called Ulrich.

**-Outside the dorms-**

Ulrich heard his phone ring and he picked it up. "Aelita? Hey, yeah, we're on our way." He hung up as soon as he said that and turned to Odd. "Activated tower, we're going in. I'll tell Yumi."

**-With the walking students-**

"Breathe deeply. Nothing like taking in a breath of fresh air before taking in some fine art!" Chardin told them.

_What does breathing have to do with art?_ Cassidy wondered. _Aw, well, to each their own._

Yumi heard her phone ring as the psychic had a spark-flash. She picked up the phone. After a few seconds… "What?**!**"

"Which part of the museum are you going to visit first, huh, William? The impressionists or the pop art?" Christophe asked.

"Neither. The gift shop. I'm going to try to get something there for Yumi and Cassidy." He turned around. "What would you two like, ladies? Yumi? Cassidy!" He scoffed. "As usual, she couldn't wait to give me the slip..."

**-With the two escapers-**

The two ran through the forest. "I have a feeling that Herbology is not going to be our friend today," Cassidy panted.

"Is Odd the one who taught you that?"

"No, as a matter of fact, it's Harry Potter."

**-Back to Aelita-**

She was starting to do the necessary repairs. She looked up at the Super-calculator. "Let's get to work."

**-With Ulrich and Odd-**

"Do you think that Aelita got the thing fixed, huh, Ulrich?" Odd said as they raced through the forest.

"We'll find out soon enou—ugh!" Ulrich tripped on a root and fell.

The ninja warrior stopped and looked back. "Hey, what happened?"

Now the samurai looked to be tied up. Vines circled every appendage, holding him down. He resisted the restraint, but with that came a failed effort.

Odd could only look, when he noticed that the vines were going to do the same thing to him. They dragged him right next to Ulrich.

He only had one joke. "Got any sun block?"

**-Back to Jeremie-**

He finally got done with the dusting and vacuuming.

Jim, who was watching the whole time, said, "Alright, now get to class, and hurry it up."

"Thanks, Jim, see ya!" Jeremie put away the vacuum and duster and went off.

Jim smiled. "That kid did a real good job," he said to himself as he left the room.

**-Back to Yumi and Cassidy-**

They were racing through the forest. Soon they found a tree and decided to stop. Panting, Cassidy said, "Now…running I can handle, but running a mile—count me out."

They heard a noise and, with the agreeing nod of the other, they kept running.

**-Back to the repair job-**

"Yes, Jeremie, I did what I could in the meantime, but I don't know if it will hold up." Aelita was on the phone with Jeremie. "…The others? No, nothing yet. Okay, then, hurry up." It was a soft command.

**-To Ulrich and Odd-**

"Odd, try to free my hand!" Ulrich struggled in the vines entangling them.

"What, are you joking? First I would love to be able move my own!" Odd asked.

Jeremie found them. "There they are." He was concerned and ran up a safe distance from them.

"Pretty good timing," Odd half-whined.

Jeremie then spotted a shovel that Michael Rouiller had obviously forgotten to put away.

"Hey!" Ulrich called over to his friend.

"Hang on!" Jeremie grabbed the shovel and aimed it over them.

"Uh, watch it, Einstein. Coordination's never been your thing!" Odd showed his concern fast.

But Jeremie, knowing to be careful, started to hack away at the vines. First he got one on Odd's torso, next Ulrich's ankle, and so on until Ulrich was freed. "Nice one," the samurai complimented.

Jeremie noticed the vines getting nearer to him now. "Ulrich, RUN! Join Aelita and deactivate the tower!" Then he was tied down, too. "Hurry!"

Ulrich ran and Jeremie was forced to be next to Odd.

The samurai warrior saw that the vines were after him now, but he already made it to the passage.

He closed it just as the vines covered the area.

**-Meanwhile on the opposite end-**

Yumi and Cassidy kept racing forward, but then stopped to see some of the vines. The cat warrior panicked a little. "Yumi, try to make your way around! That's the only way one of us could get to the factory. Don't ask questions, just run."

She did, giving her friend a look that said, "You know the way, good luck."

"Just thank the heavens that I am not the way," Cassidy bantered after her when one of the vines caught her ankle.

**-Ulrich-**

Ulrich finally made his way to the factory and into the elevator. He took it down to the lab where Aelita asked, "Where are the others?"

"Jeremie and Odd are kind of tied up. We'll have to do without them." He ran over to her and Kiwi. "Yumi and Cassidy aren't here yet?"

"No!"

Ulrich used his phone to call.

**-With Yumi-**

Yumi's phone rang as she hid behind a tree. "Ulrich…same here, these stupid roots are blocking the way. Cassidy's doing something but I don't know what it is…Oh, no, don't wait for me! I'll get there soon." She hung up.

**-Cassidy-**

Ulrich had also called her. "Ulrich…No, I'm not at the OK Corral. Instead these vines have done near blocked our way. I would love to join you in that Ice Sector, but I'm afraid I won't make it. No, you don't wait for me either. I'm not sure if I'll—"

Cassidy turned and saw a root around her ankle. "I'm not sure if I'll make it!" she hastily said before she was dragged away.

**-To the Lab-**

"Cassidy!" Ulrich yelled then turned to Aelita. "No time to lose. Cassidy's in trouble, Aelita."

"Okay, I'll start up a self-virtualization program." She started typing on the coordinates and program.

"Did you manage to fix the Supercomputer?" Ulrich asked.

"Well, just temporarily," Aelita answered truthfully. She put in the final code. "Here we go!"

She and Ulrich got into the scanners and soon, they were on Lyoko's Ice Sector.

**-With Cassidy-**

The vine kept dragging Cassidy. She fought hard, but at one point, her back hit against a sharp rock, right near the scar. "YIPE!" She yelled. "That's my XANA-Jeremie scar!"

**-With the two already-on-Lyoko Warriors-**

"Come on," Ulrich commanded.

And the two ran.

**-With Jeremie and Odd-**

"How are we going to get out of…this one?" Jeremie asked, the restraint making him speak hoarsely.

"Just like we said!" Odd said with a rasp.

"We didn't say anything!"

"That's why we have a problem."

Jeremie then notice the vine starting to fizz/fade a little then kick back to reality.

"Hold on, I think I may have an idea!" he smiled.

"That's great, I'm dying to hear it," Odd rasped.

"No time! But when I give you the signal, I want you to try with all your might to get yourself free, okay?" Jeremie ordered.

"Should try to get free? I could've thought of that without your help!"

"You gotta trust me Odd!"

"Can't you think of something more convincing to say for once?" Odd narrowed his brows.

**-Ice Sector-**

Ulrich and Aelita ran to the tower, but then saw two Tarantulas.

They stopped about a mile off. "Okay, two Tarantulas. Not exactly the end of the world."

"Should we use force?" Aelita asked.

"Is there any other way?"

"Our brains!"

"Don't have any. SUPER-SPRINT!" He charged off.

The Tarantulas didn't seem too happy about Ulrich's appearing out of nowhere. They fired away, but Ulrich dodged every shot. Aelita decided to go off while the samurai boy was doing his thing.

But then he froze and "teleported" behind the Tarantula. It was confused at first, but then he found him…in black and white.

He looked at himself, not sure what to make of his outfit. "Since I'm in black and white, might as well fight the old-fashioned way." Ulrich fenced the Tarantula. "En guarde! Touché!"

But the blade of his katana harmlessly went right through the monster. And he started to fizz. He tried to hit it three times but it didn't work.

The Tarantula ganged up on him. "This time we've had it," the black-and-white samurai sounded almost despondent.

Meanwhile Aelita was cornered by the second Tarantula. She started to bug up too. "Oh, no. Not NOW!"

But then the Tarantulas (not just the second one) started to fizz and freeze.

Ulrich regained his color once again. "Cool!"

**-Yumi-**

Yumi had made it to the factory by using the wall.

**-Back to the show-**

Aelita used an energy field on the second Tarantula and made her way through.

The two ran for it as the second one clunked over to the first to guard the tower.

Back at the ice floe, Ulrich asked, "Hey, what happened?"

"Nothing special. The bugs also seem to affect the monsters."

"Well that kinda makes things even for once," Ulrich used his index finger to show the number one.

**-Back to Odd and Jeremie-**

"The signal!" Odd was getting impatient.

"Hold on!" Jeremie rasped. Then the vines fizzed. "NOW!"

They stood up, fazing through the vines.

"Quick, let's get outta here!" Jeremie said.

**-Back with Cassidy-**

She was still fighting the vine dragging her. "XANA, you're a never-give-up person." Cassidy scowled.

She grabbed a branch but it broke off.

The vine took her to a fissure in the ground. Cassidy grabbed a tree and held on. _You ain't taking me, yet,_ XANA.

**-Back at the Ice Sector-**

Things were heating up despite the sector. The Tarantulas were firing, and so was Aelita with her energy fields, and Ulrich was deflecting the shots. At one point Aelita got hit.

Fizzes and freezes kept going on throughout the thing.

**-Back to Odd and Jeremie-**

Odd and Jeremie made it to the factory. "Get to the scanner room," Jeremie ordered as he ran to the computer.

Odd saluted his buddy as the elevator took him down to that room. "Yes, sir."

Jeremie looked on the screen.

**-Back to the Ice Sector-**

"How many life points do you think you have left?" Ulrich was concerned.

"Definitely less than you!" Aelita said.

"_That's right, so you'd better watch it,"_ Jeremie warned.

They looked up as they heard that.

"Jeremie, you're there! That's cool!" the samurai was overjoyed then ducked as a Tarantula started to fire again.

"_Yeah, and Odd's coming to the rescue!"_

He deflected shot after shot of the Tarantula.

**-Lab-**

"Scanner: Odd, Virtualization!" Jeremie said.

**-To the Ice Sector-**

"Triplicate!" Ulrich called out, but no clones came.

The Tarantula fired and hit him in the stomach.

Aelita tried to face off against the second Tarantula using her Creativity. It materialized a glacier above the monster and squashed it flat.

"Good job, Aelita," Ulrich congratulated. But what he didn't see in the distance were two Krabes ready to join the battle until he turned around. "Uh, oh!"

"Right, any last words before we both get devirtualized?" They walked backwards, Ulrich holding his katana out in front of him.

"LASER ARROW**!**!" Odd yelled from his OverBoard. Odd had come in to join the "fun".

"That's what I wanted to hear. Good to see you, Odd!" Ulrich smiled.

Odd did some cool tricks and decided to go through the legs of one of them. "Cootchie Coo!" He teased as if his hair was a tickler. "Huh, I guess you're not ticklish under the claws."

"_Here's a little something to get around with,"_ Jeremie announced as the OverBike appeared.

Ulrich and Aelita both got on it. "Saddle up, Princess!"

**-Cassidy's dilemma-**

Cassidy had since let go of the tree and used the rock as her next object to hold.

She couldn't yell out for help. _Odd, Jeremie, Ulrich, and Yumi are at the factory with Aelita; no one will find me until I get out of this mess._

**-Back to Lyoko-**

The vehicles disappeared as if Jeremie decided to take them away and the three fell to the ice and not the digital sea. **(A/N: I'm getting to think that this was a bit like Common Interest con Aelita this time)**

"_Sorry, guys, the Supercomputer is losing more and more power. You'll have to go on foot,"_ Jeremie apologized quickly.

"Jeremie, I didn't have time to finish the repairs," Aelita confessed.

"_I know, Aelita, and you did a great job,"_ Jeremie said to her. _"It's okay, I can finish up!"_

"Better do it as fast as you can. It's bugging up more and more. And we still haven't heard anything from Cassidy!" Ulrich called out. _Where's our psychic when we need her?_

"_I'll do whatever I can. Just for now, worry about that stupid tower!"_ Jeremie decided to clock out for a while.

They raced for the tower, but stopped. "Here comes a mega-problem."

A Megatank was now there.

**-With Cassidy-**

She was slipping but she tried to hold on strong when she lost her grip and started almost-falling into the fissure itself to go flat on her back. "Ow!" she groaned, picking herself up.

**-Jeremie-**

Jeremie and Yumi were working on repairing what Aelita understandably didn't have time to repair.

"There, that oughtta do it." He stood up.

**-With the Lyoko Warriors-**

The Megatank fired and the three separated. Odd ran for a little bit and then froze. "Oh, no, that is so uncool!"

Aelita used her Creativity to shield Odd. It worked. After, Odd unfroze and fell on his stomach. "Ouch." To Jeremie, he asked, "How are you doing, Einstein? It's killing us! We can't even take a step without bugging up."

**-With Jeremie-**

Jeremie was working on the wiring on the monitor and computer, Kiwi, being a good doggie, sitting and watching him. Yumi was watching intently.

"I'm almost there!" He said. "Okay. All I have to do is reboot the works."

**-Back to Lyoko-**

The next Megatank laser fire took out Aelita's Creativity project, breaking it into a thousand pieces.

"Better step on it!" Ulrich warned.

**-To the lab-**

Jeremie worked on the mainframe, typing the necessary calculations and calibrations, and pressed enter.

The red squares turned blue and back to red again. "Oh, no!"

**-Lyoko-**

"What?" Ulrich said.

"_I don't have enough juice to reboot the supercomputer!"_ Jeremie lamented. _"If we could only deactivate the tower, I could use its energy to restart the whole system!"_

"That's fine, Jeremie, but over here we can't deactivate the tower unless _you_ reboot the system!" Aelita snapped lightly.

"_Oh!"_ Jeremie was feeling horrible.

The Megatank fired and the three had to run, bugging up every now and then along that run.

Aelita stopped, seeing a way tower. "There's one way to do it."

"_Go on, I'm listening!"_ Jeremie was hoping for anything.

"Destroy the Ice Sector!"

"_WHAT?__**!**__"_ Yumi yelled in.

Ulrich and Odd looked at it, when Odd said, "Good ole Aelita. During the worst of times, she keeps her sense of humor."

When Aelita gave Odd a look, he changed his mind, "Uh, you mean you weren't kidding?"

"_Aelita, that's crazy!"_ Jeremie told her almost softly.

They raced for that tower. Aelita looked up to the sky. "Jeremie, Yumi, it's the only way to recover some energy and avoid total destruction of the Supercomputer. And if that happens, Lyoko disappears and us with it. We don't have a choice. Besides, that'll automatically deactivate the tower."

**-Lab-**

"She's right," Jeremie sounded defeated. "Go on. Do it, Aelita!"

**-Back to Cassidy-**

Cassidy lay, almost bleeding on the vine she hit. She used her shirt as a cork to hold the scratch on her back from bleeding. She almost didn't see the vines cover her.

**-To Lyoko-**

"_When I restart the system, I won't be able to materialize you. You'll have to manage on your own."_

Ulrich and Odd stopped. "You got it," the former boy unsheathed his sword as Aelita kept running to the tower.

She got in.

**-Back to Cassidy again-**

The vines started to play in front of her vision.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

The Megatank went on its side and started to fire at Odd and Ulrich. They jumped up and landed down, looking over to the tower.

Inside the tower, Aelita entered the code XANA. She dropped out of there on her side, got on her feet, and raced to her friends. "Hurry!"

They raced and the Megatank fell off the face of Lyoko's disappearing Ice Sector. A column of blue and white light ascended upward to the sky.

**-Meanwhile…-**

Jeremie was waiting to press the enter key. Yumi was almost biting her nails in worry.

**-Back to Lyoko again-**

Ulrich, Aelita, and Odd ran until the former unsheathed his katana. "Right, listen up. Aelita, you take care of Odd. Odd, you zap me. On three! One—"

Odd wasn't sure on the order of three (count up, count down, saying the number, etc.). "Hold on, do we zap each other on three, or do we count to three and zap each other."

"You always pull this on me, Odd! No, we zap each other on three, okay! One—"

"Wait. Aelita, don't miss, okay?" Odd said.

"ODD!" Aelita and Ulrich yelled at him. The latter boy was about to give him a virtual black eye.

The sector was disappearing fast.

"Okay, okay!"

"One, two, _three_!" Ulrich, Odd, and Aelita got each other as the sector disappeared.

The two Krabes disappeared into the digital sea as did the only Tarantula.

"_The activated tower's disappeared!"_

**-Lab-**

"Reboot system!" Jeremie hit the enter key.

The three squares got back to blue and filled in green.

Jeremie and Yumi were very satisfied. "Alright!"

**-Scanner room-**

Odd, Ulrich, and Aelita came out of the scanners.

"Three?" Odd asked.

Ulrich scratched the back of his head.

Odd smiled as did Aelita.

**-Back to where Cassidy is-**

She climbed out of the crack in the ground, mildly bleeding from her back, hair wild, and shaky. "You did it, Aelita. You helped reboot the system…" She smiled weakly, but winced when the pain shot through her.

**-Later on-**

"Well, we may have lost the Ice Sector, but we didn't lose the supercomputer or a warrior," Cassidy almost let out a yelp as Odd applied some antiseptic on the wound on her back.

"Right, the repairs are only temporary, but at least they'll help us keep on fighting XANA," Jeremie agreed.

"We managed to save the supercomputer," Aelita continued.

"You were right about us getting tied up, too, Cassidy," Odd said.

"I would've gone back a little more to warn Ulrich, but I couldn't," Cassidy bit into Jeremie's pillow.

"You did great, Aelita! Sissi's right to call you Mrs. Einstein," Odd kept applying the stuff.

_Easy does it on the antiseptic, Odd,_ Cassidy ordered. Odd did.

"Don't forget that this little adventure of ours cost us the Ice Sector," Yumi nodded.

"Yeah, that is a shame," Jeremie said. "I'm going to have to find a way to virtualize you directly into Sector 5 from now on!"

"I'm sorry that I couldn't…"

"Don't apologize, Cassidy. You couldn't go to Lyoko with us and that's okay," Odd understood, putting the bottle of antiseptic aside and applied some gauze. The cut was about two inches long, almost like a puncture wound, but it wasn't that deep. To Jeremie, he said, "It's okay. As long as the Mountain Sector stays together there's still hope."

Ulrich helped Odd and Cassidy with the bandages. "Yeah, but for how long?"

"HEY, I didn't know you had 'Solutions for Bug Eater attacks'! Do you mind?" Odd reached for the shelf after his girl was bandaged.

"No I don't, plus Jim said my room passed inspection, so you can look at it," Jeremie smiled.

"Thanks."

"We will never give up, Jeremie!" Cassidy sat up and tried not to stretch.


	39. We Have Triple Trouble!

**Cassidy: My Boss does not own Code Lyoko. But she owns me.**

**-Mountain Sector-**

Odd missed on the six Bloks. "Oh, no, missed again!"

It was Lyoko mission time…again. Cassidy shot at the Bloks and clipped two of them. "Odd, we're going to get through this."

The boyfriend on the other hand, had his doubts. "I already missed twice, Cat-Girl. You've got an upper-hand."

"I don't call it an upper-hand. I just call it Kill the Bloks." She took out another.

Meanwhile the three Bloks were trying to herd Aelita into the direction of the Schyphozoa. That set an angry fire in the psychic's stomach. _Ain't no way that we're going to let Aelita get caught by the Schyphozoa!_

"_Watch out!"_ Jeremie warned.

"We'll get there! No way in Marcusville will we let Aelita get caught," Cassidy used her almost-correct Southern accent. Determination set inside her, she was not going to let the monster get her friend and roommate.

"_If the Schyphozoa pulls Aelita into the way tower, it's all over! We could say good-bye to the Mountain Sector, and then, bye-bye Lyoko, too."_

"We'll get her to the torre correcta in no time, just give us some time," she said. "It's no picnic out here! And don't bite your nails, Jeremie."

She swore she heard an eye roll from the worried genius.

Odd sounded as if he had heard it a million times, "We get the picture, Einstein."

The boyfriend-girlfriend duo was joined by Ulrich as they swooped in to try to save the day. He (Ulrich) noticed the scene and got onto the next platform to help in between the Bloks and Aelita, getting off his OverBike in the process. He used his katana to block and ward off the shots. After they ceased firing for a few seconds, Ulrich turned, gave Aelita a wink, and ran off to get rid of the Bloks. "TRIPLICATE!" he yelled, and this time his request rang true. There were three Ulrichs running to get rid of them. That ticked them off a bit.

They got rid of the two clones and missed the real one. He jumped up and stabbed the middle Blok right in the eye. "IMPACT!" He had to get out of the way to avoid getting hit by the debris.

Odd sped on ahead to try to do a number on the Bloks. He launched a laser arrow, calling his attack, and got the one on his right—but not in the eye.

Cassidy called out. "Don't worry, Odd, you did your best. It was not a bad shot."

Then Odd spotted somebody in the distance. It was Yumi! She sped past him and into the action itself.

Ulrich ran in the middle of the two Bloks and tried to block off the shots. He did well until they got him in the thigh just near the knee.

Yumi got off her OverWing and launched a fan at one of the Bloks. She succeeded. It went straight into the eye and came back at her for her to catch.

Ulrich braced himself for the explosion.

Cassidy ran past the two of them to meet up with Aelita. "The Schyphozoa is there, I'm going to protect you!"

The pink-haired girl nodded and used her Creativity to make a rock to which Yumi used her Telekinesis to get rid of the last Blok. For a final measure, Cassidy used her tube, turned it into a gun, and shot at the Schyphozoa with all her might.

"KEEP BACK!" she gritted her teeth to the jellyfish-like monster. "YOU KNOW I CAN HURT YOU, YE DEMON FROM XANA!"

Ulrich decided to join in on the fun and started chopping at the Schyphozoa's tentacles. After the monster backed off, he turned to Aelita. "There you go, Princess."

She smiled. Odd came in on his OverBoard. "Hey, what am I here, a groupie?"

"No you aren't a groupie, Odd," Cassidy sighed.

**-Scanner room-**

"That makes twelve for me. Anyone top that?" Ulrich asked.

"Still have eighty-seven Megatanks from the possessed nurse attack ages ago," Cassidy showed her stats, but she wasn't proud of them.

"I got ten," Aelita smiled. "Yumi?"

"Oh, not many, only fifteen," Yumi shrugged. "Odd? How many of XANA's monsters did _you_ wipe out this week?"

A slight frown entered Cassidy's features.

Odd was typing in the elevator code. "Two," he sounded ground down.

"Unlucky week for you, Odd? I understand," Cassidy slightly smiled. "I had been unlucky last week. Too many Hornets and one jammed bullet."

"You're lucky you even have a weapon!" Odd snapped at her, causing her to back up behind Yumi.

"What's going on? What's your problem?" Yumi grew a little bit concerned.

"You know darn well! You all got super powers. Telekinesis, Super Sprint, Triplicate. You can all make stuff appear. Even a tube that turns into a weapon is countable. Me, I've got zilch. The only power I ever had was Future Flash that made me temporarily psychic, unlike Cat-Girl, and it got wiped out when Jeremie was updating the Supercomputer. And he never reprogrammed it because it was, I quote, 'useless'."

The five were now in the elevator now. Cassidy still hid behind Yumi.

"So just knock it off with your high scores and low scores, okay?" Odd was still in a rut.

**-The next day-**

Odd walked alone to the vending machines to find the gang already there. Cassidy gave him their morning kiss, but Odd was still in a bad mood over the day before. So it felt really hollow.

He went over to the hot chocolate machine.

Cassidy felt a little bit turned off. Yumi put a hand on her shoulder and softly whispered. "He's still sulking, I guess."

"I guess, but usually that would perk him straight up. To see him like this breaks my heart into thousands of sharp pieces," she whispered back.

Odd put a Euro in the machine, but found that the hot chocolate machine hadn't had a stock-up in cups recently. That really set him in a bad mood. "I don't believe it. Is the whole world trying to bring me down or what?"

Jeremie put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, look, I'm on your side."

Cassidy broke from Yumi's grip and gave Odd a hug. "And so am I!"

"Says you, Cassidy, you have powers even on Earth," he sounded run down again.

"I put a little something together that's bound to cheer you up, Odd," Jeremie smiled.

That put a smile on the in-the-rut friend's face. "I hope it's nothing to eat because you're an awful cook!"

"No, it's a special power just for you and nobody else. Teleportation."

That caused Odd to break free of both Jeremie and Cassidy's grips. "You're the best, Einstein!" He yelled. "If I were a girl, I'd propose to you immediately!"

"Um…that would be great, Odd, but then…" Cassidy eyed Aelita. "Who will Aelita see if you take Jeremie away from her?"

**-On Lyoko-**

Odd, Aelita, and Cassidy landed in the Mountain Sector. He dusted himself off as soon as Cassidy stood next to him. "I'm standing by Jeremie."

"_This new power will allow you to travel instantly over short distances,"_ Jeremie told him.

"Cool, how does it work?" Odd was intrigued.

"_First, you have to visualize the place you want to go to, okay?"_

Odd looked around and picked a place. "Like that big mountain, for instance?" he pointed.

"_Sure, why not?"_ Jeremie's tone was happy and assertive. _"Next, you activate the program by saying 'teleportation'."_

Odd straightened up, but was touching Cassidy. "Okay, teleportation!"

With a flash of green light, the two of them 'teleported' to the top of the mountain. "Wow. Fantastic!"

Odd looked to her. "How'd you end up here?"

"I think you touched me and I ended up coming with you," Cassidy hugged the tree. "Oh…I don't like being up this high!"

Aelita, also supervising, saw something wrong. "No, not fantastic at all!"

"_Uh-oh, looks like something bugged up,"_ Jeremie announced.

Cassidy realized something and got off the tree. "Odd, whatever you do, do not do another teleportation."

"Okay, I'll try again," Odd smiled.

Aelita and Cassidy chorused together, "No, WAIT!"

"Teleportation!" With another flash of green light Odd and Cassidy were on the ground next to Aelita.

"Aren't you happy to see us?" Odd wondered.

"Yeah, but honestly, only one of each of you would've been enough!" Aelita pointed out. "Look up there!"

The two looked at the mountaintop, to the start point. There was a copy of Odd and Cassidy on the mountain. Both Odds were confused. "Huh? What?"

Both Cassidy copies looked at each other as if the other was about to explode.

"And there!" she pointed again.

The Odd next to Aelita looked at yet another copy of Odd and Cassidy. Again the two Odds were confused. "Huh?"

The one next to Aelita yelled up to the sky, "Jeremie, I take back my marriage proposal."

"_Nobody panic!"_ Jeremie said to the three Odds, the three Cassidy copies, Aelita, Ulrich, and Yumi (Ulrich and Yumi weren't with them on Lyoko, but to give them comfort was necessary). _"It's only a minor bug. I'll rematerialize you!"_

**-To the scanner room-**

Odd came out of the scanner, pretending to be hurt, and fell onto Jeremie. That panicked the genius of the group. "Odd, what's wrong?"

"I—FOOLED YOU THAT TIME, DIDN'T I?" Odd laughed.

Then Cassidy came out of the same scanner, saying, "Odd, that was a lame trick! 'Could've done a little better."

Ulrich agreed, "Unbelievable. What a total meathead!"

Then another scanner door opened to find another Odd doing the same trick. Jeremie was not fooled this time.

"We know. Fooled us that time."

Then the scanner opened again to another Cassidy copy.

"And it was a lame trick and Odd could've done better," Jeremie sighed.

Both clones were confused. "How did you know what we were going to say?"

Then the third scanner door opened to a third Odd doing the same trick. And then it opened again to a third Cassidy copy.

The third Odd clone looked confused. "What's wrong? What's going on?"

He looked around to find that there were two Odd clones and two Cassidy copies. "Huh?"

The first Cassidy had a spark flash, but none of the other of her clones did. "This is definitely bad news."

"Wait a minute. Only one of you contains Cassidy's psychic power?" Ulrich and Jeremie chorused.

The second clone started to sob erratically, until the third one calmed her down.

The third Cassidy said, "Yeah, and I can't wait for gym class. Good ole discus throwing."

That concerned the Lyoko warriors in the scanner room.

**-The three boy clones and girl clones in the Lab-**

"Look on the bright side, now you've got four more great buddies," the Odd that got out of the scanner first said.

The two Odd clones chorused together: "That's right!"

The emotionally unstable Cassidy copy started to well up tears when the bold and athletic one calmed her down again with only two words. "Cálmate, señorita."

"Get real! With three Odds, that's three times as many bad jokes," Ulrich said.

"And two too many Odd Della Robbias and Cassidy McGuires at school," Yumi agreed.

The bold athletic Cassidy started to stretch. Jeremie was understandably uncomfortable by this. "Um…bold Cassidy, could you…stop?"

The athletic clone stopped.

"Why don't the two Odd's and two Cassidy's lay low here to stop anyone from getting suspicious and the other Odd and Cassidy could go to school as usual and everything would be cool?" Aelita suggested.

Jeremie smiled. "Good idea. I'll stay here to figure out what went wrong, okay?"

"No way, Jose. It's lunchtime and we're starved—"

The first Cassidy shouted, "WAIT A MINUTE!" and the first Odd stopped talking.

Everyone stared at her as though she had cursed the first Odd's very name.

She took a moment to compose herself and then said, "I happen to have an idea."

"Well, let's hear it?" Ulrich scratched the back of his head.

"We could disguise the Della Robbia twins and my McGuire copies."

"How?"

"We're going to cut their hair and change their names," she sang. "And clothes too."

"No way am I wearing a dress!" Odd #1 protested and #2 and #3 agreed.

"Who said _anything_ about wearing a dress?" Cassidy #3 argued. "The Della Robbia twins are going to wear boy clothing. What, did you think that she was going to make you three clones dress in drag and do the hula in front of Sissi?"

Odd #1 realized his mistake. "Oh."

**-In Cassidy and Aelita's dorm room-**

Odd #2 was way uncooperative when it came to hair cutting. Finally Cassidy #1 gave up and said, "Fine! We'll just straighten your hair so it looks like when Odd first came to school here." So she did so.

When shown the mirror, Odd #2 was very impressed. "Okay…now what will be my alias?"

"Your name is Alexx with two X's in your name to keep on with the double consonant," Cassidy #1 said.

Alexx smiled. "Okay.

"Hey, what's my new name?" Odd #3 asked (he now had a Mohawk).

"Your name has a double R, and your name is Hunterr," Cassidy #1 finished up her first clone's hairdo. It was a little shorter than her own hair style, but it was gorgeous. "Chessy's done!"

She held up a mirror to Chessy. She looked very impressed but still a little shook up. But before the tears came in, Cassidy #1 calmed her down again.

Yumi and Aelita got done with Cassidy #3's hairstyle, which was similar to Yumi's hairstyle in a lot of ways sans color. "What is her name going to be?" Aelita asked.

"Tracy, like the name of my aunt," Cassidy smiled.

Tracy shook her hair out and smiled at the result. "I love it."

Cassidy whipped out her bag. "Time for us girl 'very distant cousins from the southern tip of Chile' to get dressed in different outfits."

Tracy and Chessy nodded. "We are ready."

"Let's see, for Tracy, we have a red soccer jersey with matching shorts." She handed Tracy the clothing.

"Cool!" Tracy loved her clothes and rushed to the bathroom to put them on.

"And for Chessy…we have an open-hooded sweater with jeans," Cassidy handed Chessy the items.

The girl looked at the clothes and almost started to cry again when Aelita told her to calm down. She took them and, with Cassidy, Yumi, and Aelita's backs turned, put them on.

They turned back around and saw her with the clothes on right.

Cassidy sighed. "Whew, we're good for my set. Now for Odd's set. Alexx, we have a purple-and-pink hooded shirt with a black undershirt. For Hunterr we have a green camouflage hooded sweater and a bright pink undershirt."

"WHAT?" Hunterr protested.

"Do you want to go to lunch together or not?" Cassidy asked a bit exasperated. Taking care of clones was a bit tougher than she expected.

"Yes, mom!" Hunterr sighed.

"Then put them on now or no lunch!"

As the boys left to get dressed, Tracy came back and Cassidy flopped down on her bed. "Oi, yoi, yoi this is going to be a long day."

"No kidding," Chessy sounded a bit depressed.

Yumi and Aelita agreed.

"It's like raising children with the Della Robbia twins protesting against their disguises." She shook her head.

"Are they ready, Cat-Girl?" Odd popped in.

"My clones are, but Hunterr gave me hell because he didn't like the undershirt color!" Cassidy snapped.

Odd smiled and gave her a kiss. "Don't sweat it, Danger Psychic. I'll give him a little talking to. Everything will be cool."

**-Onto Lunch I guess-**

Hunterr, Alexx, Chessy, and Tracy followed Cassidy, Yumi, Aelita, and Odd to the cafeteria. Hunterr and Alexx tried to vie over who should humor Rosa, but with a glare from Cassidy, they stopped.

They got their lunches and sat down at the usual table. After the three Della Robbia musketeers got their lunches done, Sissi passed by. "So…was there a mistake and McGuire and Della Robbia had…"

"You say one more thing and I'll use you as a hammer throw," Tracy growled under her breath. She earned a slap from Cassidy though she was hiding laughs.

"What was that, loser?" Sissi screeched at her.

"Forgive Tracy. She has a very sharp attitude toward girls like you because she was picked on all the time in Chile!" The first clone defended nicely. "She's a bit hair-trigger. Keep off her bad side and you two will be golden."

Sissi nodded and walked away.

"Nice save," Alexx complimented.

**-After Lunch-**

"Gym class starts in five minutes," Ulrich told them.

"Yes!" Tracy cheered surprising Ulrich. "Discus throwing, here we come!"

Everyone got dressed for it and got down to the stadium.

Ulrich pulled Cassidy over. "Hey, Cassidy, do you know why one of your clones is emotionally wrecked and the other one feeling up for sports? Those two aren't you. So what's up?"

"My emotional side, I figure, is what I felt like doing after William broke up with me, but I was stuck. My athletic side, I assume, is my secret ambition to do those flips that I know that Yumi does. Unfortunately I'm kinda scared to do so. I feel a need to do so and then all of a sudden my body says no," Cassidy shrugged.

Ulrich slanted a brow. "So that's what you figure?"

"If my theory and assumptions are right," she sat down in the front row.

"Contrary to what you smart-alecks believe, discus throwing has nothing to do with throwing out a CD you're tired of listening to," Jim discussed. "No, it's an Olympic discipline that requires strength, skill, muscular coordination, and above all, a discus."

**-Back at the lab. Jeremie, how's the work coming?-**

Jeremie was working on what went wrong when he came across something bad. "Oh, no!"

**-With the clones, Aelita, and Ulrich-**

Cassidy was struck with a spark-flash and jumped up on her feet with a gasp.

Jim paused in his long, boring speech to look at her with a look of concern. "McGuire! What's going on?"

"Nothing, Jim, it's just that…I realized I needed to go to the ladies' room," She hoped it would work.

The clones all stood up.

"Me, too," Alexx pleaded.

"Me, three," Hunter acted like it, too.

"Me, four," Tracy realized.

"Me, five?" Chessy questioned.

"Okay, okay, you may all go to the bathroom. Stones, Odd, and Stern, if you need to use the bathroom too, I suggest you three step on it," Jim huffed.

"Thank you, sir!" Tracy bowed and then ran off with Cassidy and the others.

**-At Kadic's Gates-**

"What's wrong, Cassidy?" Ulrich asked.

"I realized something. The clones are unstable and if we don't virtualize my copies and Odd's clones fast, then it's good-bye to both of us," Cassidy explained.

Odd's phone rang and he picked it up. "This had better be the same as Cassidy told us, Jeremie."

"_I found out how to solve this teleportation bug problem. The six of you have better get each into a scanner together, you and your clones first, Odd, and then Cassidy and her copies, in order to fuse you back into one during virtualization,"_ Jeremie explained.

"Okay, I get it. For once, it sounds really easy!" Odd smiled.

"_I wish it was, but here's a little problem. Your three entities of both of you are unstable. At one point, you six will disappear into thin air, you understand?"_

"This is the same as what Cassidy told us. We'll get going as soon as possible," Odd nodded.

"_Be careful. If one of you is missing, the fusion is impossible,"_ Jeremie warned.

**-With Yumi and her science class-**

"A circuit in series differs from a circuit in parallel, and that any single bulb that is missing from the circuit will cut the flow of electricity," Mrs. Hertz took out a bulb from the circuit board and **a ghost of XANA's came out the socket. **Mrs. Hertz was very surprised.

**XANA's ghost went out the open window into the ground behind where Jim was still demonstrating.**

"Let me put this into practice. After all, actions speak louder than words," Jim said. "So here's a demonstration for you!"

**-Jeremie-**

Jeremie spotted an **activated tower in the Mountain Sector.**

"Oh, great, that's all we need." He called up Yumi's number.

**-After Yumi's class-**

Yumi's phone rang. She picked it up and said, "Okay, Jeremie, I'm on it!"

**-With Jim-**

"So, you bend your knees like this…"

He went into position when some gas ascended from the ground.

Hervé noticed straight away.

"…into position to keep your shifting weight in balance!" Jim said. "Your arm holding the discus outstretched like this."

Hervé got up. "Look behind you, Jim! There's something right behind you, look!"

"Listen, Hervé. I was not born yesterday. What are you trying to pull?" Jim asked.

**The gas caught up to Jim and he turned into a statue.**

Hervé laughed because he knew that he was right. "Now that is what I call having a hard day!" The gas then turned him into a statue.

Ulrich, Odd, Cassidy, Aelita, Tracy, Chessy, Alexx, and Hunterr watched from afar. "This is XANA's doing," Ulrich said. "Get to the factory."

The seven nodded and used the outside of the entrance as a shortcut. Yumi joined up with them a few minutes later. "You did a good job today, Cassidy."

"Don't she always?" Tracy used Cassidy's almost correct Southern accent.

"Tracy! I do not _brag about myself_. That is so conceited," Cassidy protested.

"That high Megatank count sure could use a little bragging."

"That's IT!" **(A/N: Guess the heroine and the movie that the line "That's IT!" came from. I guarantee you'll need Pixar's films for this)**

Cassidy was almost about to pounce on her clone when Yumi and Ulrich held her back. "This is not the time," Yumi warned.

"Plus, Jeremie said that if one of you girl clones is missing, the fusion won't be complete!" Odd said.

"You understood Jeremie for once?" Ulrich asked.

"What we gotta do is deactivate the tower," Yumi interrupted. "If we stick around we'll all end up as statues."

Chessy took that the wrong way and started to have silent tears. "I don't want to be a statue!" she whimpered.

Tracy patted her shoulder. "Calm down."

They rushed all the way to the factory, the three boy clones using the ropes while the three girl copies used the ramp.

They compiled into the elevator and took it to the scanner room. "Jeremie," Aelita announced "We're all here!"

"Okay, I'll start up the virtualization," Jeremie typed on the keys.

Soon Yumi, Ulrich, and Aelita were on Lyoko.

"Sorry you six, but it looks like the scanners need to cool down again before the fusion could take place," Jeremie told the clones.

"And how long will that be before…" Odd started to protest when Chessy started to well up in tears. "…um…before one of the clones starts to fall off her bike?"

Cassidy blushed and started growling, "ODD!"

"Um…about a few minutes," Jeremie said.

"Great," Tracy deadpanned.

**-On Lyoko-**

The two girls and the only boy landed in the Mountain Region. Aelita spotted the tower first. "I see it. The activated tower is over there!"

"_And Cassidy predicts that there will be some Megatanks and Bloks, so I'd be careful if I were you three,"_ Jeremie warned.

"Don't worry, Jeremie, we've done this about a million times. It's a piece of cake," Ulrich smiled.

There was a vast stretch of rock-like land before them. They raced to a portion with two stalagmites acting almost like pillars along the way. All of a sudden a Megatank came and fired. Yumi, unfortunately and unfairly, was caught in the laser and was devirtualized instantly. **(A/N: and I'm not the only one who thinks that that was unfair)**

**-Back at the scanner room-**

Yumi, curled up in the scanner, weakly raised a fist and slammed it on the scanner's floor.

Cassidy helped Yumi get up. "Come on, girl!" she grunted. "We gotta get you up!" Chessy came and helped the first girl.

"Can't I at least go to a movie first?" Hunterr asked.

"No, because we need each other's company!" Odd blocked the elevator.

They then heard the elevator's lock system activate. _"No one is going to a movie until the whole fusion has taken place,"_ Jeremie smote.

"Thank you, Jeremie," Cassidy smiled.

"_No problem, Cassidy,"_ Jeremie smiled.

**-Back on Lyoko-**

The Megatank's laser was firing but not hitting anyone else on Lyoko.

"This is crazy. We can't move! We're stuck," Ulrich sounded ready to give up.

"Hang on!" Aelita warmed up two energy fields and got in the middle of the way. The Megatank fired at the shield. "Run, Ulrich!"

He nodded and with the yell of "Super Sprint" he was off, faster than the speed of night. He made it to behind a rock. Looking back, he saw that Aelita was trying to hold her own with the Megatank fire. Then he saw something as well. "Aelita, watch out. Behind you!" He warned.

She saw another Megatank and dodged it as fast as she could.

Ulrich had to dodge the second laser too. The first Megatank got rid of its brethren accidentally.

**-Back at the school-**

The smoke was not done freezing its victims.

**-Back at the scanner room-**

The Cassidy copies and the Odd clones were playing Go Fish.

"Do you have any fours?" Odd asked Tracy.

"Here you go!" She handed the four of spades over to him.

"Cassidy, do you have any sevens?" Odd looked to her hopefully.

She looked at her deck and groaned. "Here." She handed the seven of hearts and the seven of clubs to him.

"Do you have any Aces, Alexx?" he looked over his cards.

Alexx checked his four cards and then shook his head. "Nope, my friend, go fish."

Odd did and found the seven of diamonds. "My book is complete! Thank you, Alexx."

**-Back to Lyoko-**

Ulrich dodged as the laser from the Megatank was drawing near to him. He kept dodging until he got to the next rock. He found that he wasn't even close.

**-Back to the Go-Fishing Six-**

"Do you have any tens, Odd?" Cassidy asked.

"Oh…do you ever use your powers during Go Fish?" Odd groaned. He handed her three tens.

"Like I said to Ulrich, they turn off whenever I play a card game." She completed another book. She had four of them out in the open. The cards were Twos, Queens, Jacks, and now, Tens.

"She never cheats," Tracy looked at her cards.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

Ulrich got to the next rock. Then, after the Megatank fired, he ran out to try to get close to the enemy. He used the edge of the field to help himself get close. The monster was now confused, but kept firing as if Ulrich was there.

Racing on the flat of the mountain, Ulrich was getting closer and closer to the monster until he landed his katana in the eye of the Megatank.

It exploded, sending Ulrich flying back a few feet and his katana even more than its master.

Ulrich got up.

**-Scanner room-**

"I win!" Chessy was now excited. "YES!"

"Finally, a moment where she's not crying," Tracy sighed.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

Ulrich said, "Go ahead. The coast is clear!"

Aelita ran out but then said, "Ulrich, watch out!"

He looked back and found that there was another Megatank. He ran to try to get his katana but the laser got rid of it. That left Ulrich weaponless.

"That bites," Ulrich growled under his breath.

**-Back to the Scanner Room-**

Now the sextet were doing ninety second alphabet.

"By the way, Aliens do not over-sedate people, Cassidy!" Odd said.

"Can you blame my stupid imagination, Odd?" Cassidy countered.

"Doesn't everybody wonder how many milligrams of that stuff she had?" Tracy asked.

"Even if it's just for travel, some aliens are kind." Odd slanted a brow.

**-Back to Lyoko and Ulrich-**

The Megatank was rolling closer to Ulrich and he knew he had to run away or get crushed. So he did.

Aelita tried an energy field but it did no good.

**-Back to the scanner room-**

"No way did the aliens zap your strength. You made that up," Alexx chirped.

"Of course, my imagination is weird, Alexx," Chessy argued.

"Pining for a Lyoko Desert Mission is what I want," Cassidy mourned a little.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

Ulrich tried to stay ahead of the monster, but it kept advancing toward him with every roll. "Super Sprint!" But it was too late. The monster now had rolled Ulrich over, devirtualizing him.

**-In the scanner Room-**

Ulrich's scanner opened. "It wasn't enough that they shoot at us. Now they're trying to run us over! That's really not fair!"

"You know it. And the elevator isn't working because Hunterr here wanted to go to a movie," Cassidy recapped.

"Okay, thanks for that."

**-In the lab-**

Jeremie typed on the keys. "It's between the two of you, now, Aelita, before the scans calm down again."

**-Back to Aelita-**

"Yes, I know," Aelita looked from the hiding place. "And he's pretty tough."

The Megatank advanced but couldn't get through. Instead it was stuck trying to move through the rocks. A grinding sound could be heard from it.

Aelita ran around to the other end of the fissure and tried an energy field on it. But it only hit; it never made it blow up.

**-Back to the six clones-**

"Darn it, Jeremie, when are the scanners going to cool off?" Tracy got impatient.

"Again, impatience is not you," Ulrich whispered to Cassidy. That earned him an elbow in the gut.

"_Right now!"_

"Good thing the Della Robbia and McGuire families didn't split," Yumi smiled.

Odd and his clones went in first. _"Transfer Odd, Transfer Odd, Transfer Odd. Scanner Odd, Scanner Odd, Scanner Odd. Virtualization!"_ Jeremie did the work.

Then the scanners opened once again. Chessy's eyes widened and tears filled up in them. "I—"

"You'll be with me. I promise. You're going to be okay," Cassidy tried not to sniffle. "We'll be together. Three in one!" She gulped down a huge lump in her throat. Then she recited the Lord's Prayer with her clones:

"_Our Lord, who art in Heaven_

"_Hallowed be thy name_

"_Thy kingdom come_

"_Thy will be done_

"_On Earth and Lyoko as it is in heaven_

"_Give us this day our Daily Bread_

"_And forgive us our trespasses_

"_As we forgive those who trespass against us_

"_And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen!"_

The three got into the scanners and Jeremie did the process. _"Transfer Cassidy, Transfer Cassidy, Transfer Cassidy. Scanner Cassidy, Scanner Cassidy, Scanner Cassidy. Virtualization."_

The two landed in the Mountain Sector. Odd looked around.

"_Well, Odd and Cassidy?"_

"Perfect, all my clones are back within me," Cassidy smiled.

Odd had his own opinions. "I suddenly feel a little lonely. But that's cool. You're the best, Einstein."

"_Of course I am. Did you or Cassidy have any doubts?"_ Jeremie asked.

Back where Aelita was, the Megatank still had a hard time getting to Aelita. But then it backed up and shot its laser at her. She tried to Fire an energy field but it hit the outer shell.

"Step aside, Aelita. Let the experts do the job!" Odd and Cassidy came in on the OverBoard.

They did a complete U-turn and Odd shot his arrows at the Megatank. He succeeded. "Some Bloks will come our way. I detect four of them," Cassidy used her senses.

"Get ready, Aelita," Odd said.

**-Back at the school-**

The smoke was coming toward the factory slowly.

**-Back on Lyoko-**

Odd and Cassidy made their way to see four Bloks. She had a plan. "Odd, you take the ones up front. I'll take the two in back. That way we have an equal number of Bloks under our belts."

"I like the way you think, Cat-Girl." Odd almost tickled Cassidy under the chin when she slapped his arm down.

"Remember the Torre."

He shot an arrow at one Blok, jumped off his vehicle, and got on the second one.

Cassidy, meanwhile, had gotten onto the third one and shot it in the eye. She jumped off, raced over to the other side and waved to the fourth one. "You bore me, you blockhead." So she shot at her opponent.

Odd had gotten the second one with ease. "Milady's tower is straight ahead."

Aelita was now given leeway to deactivate the tower.

She entered the Lyoko Code.

**-Return to the past, NOW-**

"I finally understand what went wrong with the teleportation process. If you want, I could reboot the program with no bugs this time," Jeremie said.

"Jeremie, I have a feeling that Odd doesn't want it anymore," Cassidy smiled a little, then settled back to eating her lunch.

"No thanks," Odd said.

"You sure?" Jeremie asked.

"Yeah, I sure am. You saw the last battle we had. I'm a top gun, a real fighting machine. A guy like me doesn't need special powers," Odd smiled proudly.

"Yeah, you're funny, you're handsome, but most of all you're modest!" Yumi joked.

"Right. You hit the nail right on the head! You might say that I'm one-of a kind!" Odd relaxed in his chair, done with his umpteenth serving.


	40. Ay, yi, yi we have Double Trouble

**Cassidy: My author boss/friend says for her to ask you guys to PLEASE do not sing that danged Pokémon running gag song. It annoys her to heck. She also would like to say that she does not own Code Lyoko but she does own me *Lifts up her sleeve; it shows the ownership*. On with the story.**

**-In Mr. Fumet's class-**

Ulrich started praying for a good grade. "Please, let me get a good grade. Please, let me get a good grade, just for once. I'm begging you. Please, let me get a good grade!"

"You know, you might have better if you studied before an exam. It beats praying for them," Jeremie looked at his paper.

Mr. Fumet was passing back the papers. "Excellent work, Hervé. I'm not surprised, either. I gave you an A- as usual. The minus to show you can always improve. Well done!"

"Thank you, sir," Hervé smiled.

"I don't get it. How can such a good student be such a nerd?" Sissi then eyed Jeremie. "But then again you did crush Jeremie who's even nerdier than you are."

Mr. Fumet turned his attention at the back of the room. "Keeping on time, honor, tradition, I—uh—saved the best paper for last."

"I'm the only one left. He did just say the best, didn't he, huh?" Ulrich asked his buddy.

"I hate to burst your bubble, but it sounded like sarcasm," Odd sang under his breath.

"Ulrich Stern, there were a few spelling errors in this assignment that, at first, I thought it was written in some obscure, primitive language. But no, in fact, it was in English with a few errors, unfortunately, I've given you a D+. The plus to give you worse to do next time," Mr. Fumet announced.

"That wasn't just sarcastic. It was bombastic," Odd put his head on his fist in a thoughtful wonder.

Ulrich sighed. It wasn't his fault he was hungry and had doodled all over half of the page. Luckily he erased it and put down the answers, mixing up a few.

**-Principal's office-**

Yumi knocked on the door. "Come in," Mr. Delmas called. When she and Cassidy entered he was delighted. "Ah, Ms. McGuire and Ms. Ishiyama. Well, I must say I'm flattered that you answered my requests to come and see me. Ms. Ishiyama, given your constant lateness and repeated absences over these past few weeks, I'm just flabbergasted that you actually decided to show up—"

_Cassidy, al rescate!_ **(A/N: Yes, I've taken to watching Cow and Chicken again on Boomerang. Super Cow is Amazing)**

"Um…some of those absences were because um…"

"Yes, Ms. McGuire, Yumi and I both are listening," Mr. Delmas showed a bit of a Snape-like smile.

"Because she has had some troubles with her parents and she needed some time to clear her head. So she kept going to the forest…near the school."

Yumi was looking at Cassidy as if she had lost her mind.

Mr. Delmas showed a bit of emotion. "Okay, I believe you, Ms. McGuire." He then turned to Yumi. "To what do I owe this great honor?"

"I'm sorry, sir," Yumi sounded guilty. "I really am."

"Perhaps, but not as much as I am. I'm sincerely sorry to have to say this, Yumi, but unfortunately you don't leave me any choice."

Icy fear struggled to take hold of Cassidy's ways, but she tried to hold that down.

"If I hear that you are absent or late just one more time, I shall be forced to suspend you for two days from the academy."

The psychic girl's fears were diverted but not for long. After Yumi left, Mr. Delmas then turned to her. "Now, Ms. McGuire, Mrs. Hertz has told me that you've been having difficulties with Mr. William Dunbar, I suppose."

The girl gasped. "But…"

"Let me finish, Ms. McGuire. Anyway it seems that anytime she paired you up with him as your partner, he would hound you all day while you two worked. And at several intervals, she told me, you would look at her as if begging her to land you with a different partner. Was I wrong to up your grade?"

"No, sir, you did what you thought was best. I'm older than my friends and too smart for my age. Though I may be seven months younger than my friend Yumi, it's true. I'm older than Jeremie. Sir, you were right to put me…"

"No, I was wrong. Mr. Fumet also informs me that he kept yelling at you at one point during American history. And you just shuddered and wept like he was your parent. So, I'm lowering your grade and putting you back with Belpois's classes again. I'm so sorry to put you through that sorrow."

"Thank you, sir. But is it okay to keep the guest passes?" Cassidy asked.

"You do whatever you wish with them."

"And tomorrow is Mrs. Hertz's test. I was in a higher grade…"

"You will be excused from the test to avoid the pressure," Mr. Delmas nodded.

**-Nighttime at the factory-**

"Suspension?**!**" Odd was surprised as if the word just slapped him in the face. "You're kidding!"

"Oh, no, Delmas was dead serious this time." Yumi scowled.

"This can't go on much longer," Jeremie rubbed his eyes tiredly and put on his glasses.

"Even with XANA getting stronger and the Lyoko missions, it's getting very hard to keep up with schoolwork and fight against him," Cassidy sounded about ready to give up. "Danged if we don't do something about him soon." She yawned.

"Better believe it, Einstein and Cat-Girl," Odd said.

Cassidy yawned again. "It's even scarring, physically. I almost barely survived that vine attack or the crows. My espalda can't take much more cuts."

The cut she referred to was still healing.

"If you ask me, XANA's trying to wear us down," Odd patted her on the back above the cut.

Aelita then had an idea. "Well, there is one thing we can do. If we could recruit one more Lyoko Warrior, it would give us some breathing room."

"Even with me, I don't think we can survive without another." Cassidy tried to itch the cut on her back, but Odd stopped her.

"And who did you two have in mind?" Yumi asked.

"There's William," Aelita suggested. "He's already shown us what he can do."

Yumi gasped and disagreed on the spot, "No way! We've already been over this. William's too much of a hot head."

"Yumi…" Cassidy's eyes showed some exhaustion.

But Yumi didn't want to hear it. "No, he can't be trusted!"

"As far as I'm concerned, Aelita's right! It's a good idea," Odd made a motion with his arm.

Yumi grabbed it. "No, it's a very bad idea."

Jeremie had to set the peace. "Look, we're all really tired. Why don't we talk about this tomorrow? Let's take advantage of the fact that XANA hasn't attacked and get a goodnight's sleep. I'll stay up awhile and work on trying to find a way to virtualize you directly into Sector 5, okay, guys? I have some calculations to do."

"That's what you call getting a goodnight's sleep, Jeremie?"

"I don't need all that much sleep. And besides, I'll sleep a lot better once we defeat XANA. We all will, Aelita. Not before."

Aelita, Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi headed for the elevator. Cassidy stayed behind. Aelita looked back. "Aren't you coming, Cassidy?"

"I want to stay here, too, in case XANA decides to rear his cabeza fea and attack Jeremie. That way, he has a defender to ward his attacker off so he can call you guys and presto. The tower has a good chance to get deactivated," Cassidy nodded. "You go along without me, Aelita. I'll be with you tomorrow if Jeremie wants me to."

Aelita nodded and went back to the elevator and took it up with the others.

Throughout the night, Jeremie worked on the data and Cassidy stood like a guard. He was making some progress for eight hours, and then they both passed out from exhaustion, Jeremie on the keyboard, Cassidy on the floor beside him.

BEEP

BEEP

BEEP

Cassidy woke up. "J-Jeremie…we…" she yawned. "We should call the others…because…" one of her eyes drooped shut. "…we have a better…chance to deactivate the…tower…that way." She swayed as she got up and held onto the "cushy chair" for support.

Jeremie woke up after, seeing the alarm and pushing his glasses up on his face.

Then shadows loomed over them. She spark-flashed a vision and gasped. "Is there one shadow, Jeremie? Or two?"

Jeremie looked at the sudden dark shadowing. "Two."

They looked behind themselves and gasped. The two tried to defend themselves against their copies, but it was too late.

**-To Aelita's room-**

Jeremie opened the door just as soon as Aelita put on her boot. "Aelita, I have to talk to you!" Cassidy was in tow.

"Jeremie has great news!"

"What are you two so excited about?" Aelita wondered.

"I did it. I finally found a way to virtualize all of you into Sector 5 directly!" Jeremie sounded a little bit flat.

"He really did it, Aelita."

That surprised Aelita.

"We have to run a test right now! Come on…"

"…we have to go to the computer lab," Cassidy sounded strangely off, too.

"But Jeremie and I have a physics test this morning," Aelita informed. "And you have Yumi's photography class this morning, too."

"I must've forgotten to tell you. Mr. Delmas put me back in you, Odd, Ulrich, and Jeremie's classes again," Cassidy smiled.

"You and I have fabulous grades, Aelita. We could afford to skip one exam," Jeremie kept at it.

Aelita seemed understandably suspicious. "I don't think we should. Besides we have to tell the others."

**-Going to the arches-**

Ulrich crossed his arms in front of his chest. "No. No way! We're not skipping the exam. I need a decent grade to bring up my average."

"Ulrich's right," Odd agreed. "What's more, if we're all absent, they're bound to suspect something."

"And I'm sure to get suspended," Yumi turned her back.

"Some adventurers you are," Jeremie seemed to growl.

"Don't be like that!" Aelita assured. "We'll go after the test is over, Jeremie, at lunch time."

"Okay, go ahead. I'll meet you at the lunch room," Jeremie accepted the fact. "I have to go back and get some stuff." He walked to the dorm entrance door.

"Me too," Cassidy nodded as she went with him.

The two fizzed and growled, closing their eyes. When they opened, the **XANA symbol appeared.**

**-At the river near the factory-**

Two teens walked up the stairs to a dry spot and sat down to rest. XANA had bound the two with some conveniently placed yarn and threw them into the river.

The girl shivered. "Thank goodness you had your—" she coughed up some water. "Thank goodness you had your pocketknife, Einstein." She breathed in and out.

"Einstein" nodded. "No problem, Cassidy." He then checked his phone. "Oh, no!"

The two went up the rest of the stairs and raced into the factory. Cassidy shivered. "They say that sometimes water can wake you up, but that wasn't what I—had in mind."

**-Back with Odd, Ulrich, Aelita, and…Jeremie and Cassidy?-**

Odd clicked his pen, trying to think of an answer to a question. Ulrich was scratching and racking his brains for clues and answers. Jeremie was writing down every answer at such a speed, as was Cassidy. He had gotten so far with Cassidy's Mental Cliff's Notes, but now he was stumped. "Hey, Jeremie, what's the answer to question number four?"

Jeremie had his own problems. "Is Aelita done yet?"

"How should I know?"

"Ask her," Jeremie and Cassidy chorused. Apparently they wanted to be done as soon as possible.

He turned to her. "Aelita, Jeremie and Cassidy want to know if you are finished yet."

That line made Aelita lose her focus. "Huh?"

Mrs. Hertz was alerted to the sound. "Odd? Would you like me to give you some help?"

"Oh, gee, thanks, Mrs. Hertz. I sure could use a little."

"Young man! To the Principal's Office," Mrs. Hertz said. "Jeremie, Cassidy have you completed the exam?"

"Yes, ma'am!" The two said.

Ulrich was still racking his brains.

"Good, now you two can escort your classmate to the Principal's Office," Mrs. Hertz walked on by.

**-In the lab-**

"Einstein" and Cassidy walked in and he got in the console seat.

"We must call the o-others! They need our help, Jeremie."

"I know," Jeremie nodded as he put in the headset. "And soon we'll be able to warm up to a blanket soon."

"Okay," Cassidy's teeth chattered.

He typed on the keys to Odd's mobile.

** -Near the Principal's Office-**

Jeremie and Cassidy led Odd to the Administrative Arches. "Why didn't you let me copy off you this time? We wouldn't be here now."

"And if you studied like everyone else, we wouldn't be here now," Jeremie opened the door to another part of the arches. Cassidy went through first, and then Odd.

"Look, A. Not everybody else studies and B. I am _not_ like everyone else. I'm special, unique, like you two by the way!" Jeremie and Cassidy growled at Odd. Odd was about to take another step when his mobile went off.

**-The real Cassidy and Jeremie-**

They saw Odd's Lyoko Card pop up beside the phone symbol. _"Hello?"_

"Odd, it's me, Jeremie!"

"And me, Cassidy! Wait a minute, don't tell me that the twosome are with you, now," Cassidy saw it in a light-color vision.

"_Today isn't April Fool's Day,"_ Odd joked.

Cassidy rammed her head on the back of Jeremie's chair. "Out of all the Lyoko members the card lands on Odd."

"Odd, listen to me. XANA has created clones of Cassidy and me from polymorphic specters. We fought at the factory and they tried to drown us. But we survived. I don't know what they're planning, but—"

**-Back where Odd is-**

"Who's that?" the clone Jeremie said sharply.

"Yeah, Odd!" clone-Cassidy nodded in agreement.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you two," Odd told them.

**-Back at the lab-**

"They're right next to you, aren't they?" Jeremie realized.

"_Uh, well yeah, I mean, I don't know,"_ Odd sounded a bit frightened.

"Crud, they're there. ODD BEAT IT, HURRY!" Cassidy yelled.

Jeremie stayed calm. "Look in their eyes, Odd. Can you see the sign of XANA?"

**-Back to poor Odd's predicament-**

Odd was stuck. He looked into Clone-Jeremie's eyes.

"You didn't answer me," the clone took on an undertone. "Who is it?"

The answer was smack in front of him.

"J-J-J-Jeremie, C-C-C-Cassidy, I think you two are right. What do I do now, huh?" Odd backed up as the clones advanced.

The two raised their fists, and electricity flowed from them. They threw the charges at him.

"Nothing! There's nothing you can do," The clones walked away as Odd went unconscious.

"_Odd? Odd? What's going on? Answer us, will you? Odd!"_ Jeremie was desperate.

**-With Yumi's photography class-**

"May I remind each of you not to spend too much time in the dark room printing your photos? Since the dark room is for everyone to share. It's nobody's personal dark room." He then went on reminiscing. "I remember when I was a war photographer. We had to develop our prints fast while bombs were falling."

"You were a war photographer, huh, Jim?" Christophe M'Balla asked.

Jim scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, but I'd rather not talk about it." He straightened up and said. "Okay, Yumi…and William, you're the first up!"

The two entered the dark room. Yumi placed a tray on a table. William walked past her to be on her other side. "You know, I had another dream about you and Cassidy last night."

Yumi almost blushed. "Is that so?"

"There was this giant computer in this huge room, like a factory, you know. And then you, Cassidy, and I were on this bridge, fighting against some factory worker, who was doing these wild acrobatics," William recited.

That left Yumi shocked. _But that wasn't a dream. That 'happened' three weeks ago,_ she thought. "You really dreamed that?"

"Yeah, I've been having that same dream for a very long time." He scratched his chin. "It's totally weird. And, yeah, of course, it's only a dream." He adjusted one of the projectors. "And they're always a little bit weird." He got done quickly. "Right. Shall we go?" With William walking over to the drapes, Yumi's phone rang. She picked it up.

"Jeremie? What's going on?" she asked.

**-Outside the dark room-**

The light above the room turned red.

"This light means that your classmates have started the developing. When you see that, absolutely no one should open the door. The light would ruin the pictures," Jim said.

**-Back inside-**

"Listen, Jeremie. If I'm absent one more time, I'll be suspended, ya get it. What would we do then?" Yumi asked.

William opened a drape. "I don't know what's going on, but you can always get out through there."

"And Jim?" She looked to him.

"Leave him to me. I'll take care of Jim," He opened a window. "He won't notice a thing. Just don't be too long." He smiled. "That's all."

"But why would you do that for me?" she got a bit suspicious.

"Let's just say that in my dream, I really enjoyed helping you and Cassidy out," William said. "So why not try it in real life? It might be just as much fun."

She put the phone back up to her ear. "Okay, Jeremie and Cassidy, I'm coming."

"_Great, find Odd, and go get Ulrich and Aelita,"_ Jeremie said.

**-Jeremie and Cassidy-**

"I'm going to need all of you to deactivate the tower that our evil twins set up!"

A blast of icy fear set itself in Cassidy's heart. "The clones are coming," she said in a small voice.

"Calm down, Cassidy." To Yumi he added, "Speaking of whom, I wonder where they could be right now."

"Don't say that? They're coming and I know it!" she shuddered. "They're going to throw us in the shaft with no elevator car."

"Relax, calm down. Please, we'll get through this," Jeremie soothed a little.

"They're at the BRIDGE!" She shrieked. "They're angry at us for surviving. And they made Odd unconscious!"

**-Back at Odd's place-**

Yumi grabbed Odd's arm and he grabbed hers weakly. She put his hand around her shoulder. "Jeremie, Cassidy, I found Odd. He's a little woozy, but he'll be okay. We're going to try to get Aelita and Ulrich and then we'll meet you two."

**-With Jeremie and Cassidy-**

"Okay, but hurry up. I'll start setting up your transfers to Lyoko," Jeremie typed on the keys.

"Uh…Jeremie…?" Cassidy's brown eyes turned frenzied.

"What?"

The elevator doors opened to reveal their clones.

"That!" she shouted, grabbing her friend's head and positioning him to look.

"Oh, I'm insulted," Clone-Jeremie mocked. "Calling us 'that'? Aw…"

Then he turned his attention to Jeremie himself. "Well what do you know? You two actually survived."

Cassidy gulped. "Y-you _stay away from us_." Bravery was pumping slowly.

"Aw…you're placing bravery upon yourself. How sweet!" Clone-Cassidy mocked.

"You two are real swimming champs," the male clone walked in first.

Just then, the real female's brows slanted. "I warn you, I have three weeks of Pencak Silat practice under my—" she looked down and saw that she had no belt "—waistband!"

"We're almost proud to resemble you two, we really are!" Clone-Jeremie's eyes flashed with the blatant eye of XANA.

All of a sudden, that was it. Cassidy jumped up and kicked her friend's clone in the chest with what her friend Ulrich called a "Lanka".

"Don't _ever_ insult my friend like that!" she growled.

The male clone recovered, stood up soundly, and shot electricity through his hand at her. She dodged. "This is where I keep my vow!"

"Your vow? You don't have a vow. You make empty promises that you can't keep," Clone-Cassidy snarled.

"Oh, yeah, XANA? Maybe you should get to know me better." The two clones started to circle her.

Jeremie had to continue preparing the virtualization processes.

"Maybe if we get the Schyphozoa to probe your mind, then you can tell us everything you know," The female clone purred to the male one.

"My mind is not a _play thing_ to be toyed with!" the non-clone spat angrily in her clone's face. "There are places you can't get into like a locked filing cabinet." Then she landed a punch to Clone-Jeremie's face and kicked him in a place that no girl should ever kick a boy.

Jeremie finished and saw the fight just in time. "Nice one, Cassidy."

She couldn't let herself get distracted. Just then she roundhouse-kicked her own clone. "This is where I do it old school."

Her clone recovered and shot electricity from her hand. This time the aim was just right. Cassidy was thrown to the wire back-first. "I know Tracy would hate that," she stood up shakily.

"Who's Tracy?" Clone-Jeremie found his octave.

"One of my counterparts that now is within me," Cassidy panted. "You aren't our masters!" she took a step to them but then Clone-Jeremie raised his fist and electricity found its way to her, sending her back first into the wall.

"Cassidy!" Jeremie cried.

The male clone sauntered over to where Jeremie was, and did the same thing to the effect of throwing him off the chair into the wall where Cassidy was recovering.

"Again, don't breathe a word of this to anyone, ya hear?" Jeremie whispered.

"Amigo, you know that I can keep secrets. I never even told about that false Franz Hopper Attack."

"With the exception that we are _far_ more powerful than you!" Both clones united, they started their electricity hands.

Jeremie and Cassidy cried out. "NO!"

**-Back at the test-**

Aelita was working on the test very well when her phone rang. She checked it. It was an envelope (meaning a message).

Mrs. Hertz was patrolling to make sure no other cheaters were at large.

Ulrich tried to think of an answer when his phone beeped/buzzed to him. He picked it up. _"Ulrich, we have to go!"_ Aelita said. _"It looks like there is an emergency."_

"Sorry, emergency or not, I'm not moving. I need the grade and this time, I'm off to a decent start," he whispered.

"_Okay, but I better go. Meet up with us when you've finished."_

Ulrich looked at his paper, dropped the phone in his hand, and took the pencil out of his mouth to work.

**-Back with the two clones and their human counterparts-**

Clone-Jeremie opened up the elevator. And the two humans knew that they had to overthrow their clones if they wished to survive.

"I told you that this time the ascensor will have no coche," Cassidy fought against her clone as did Jeremie with his.

It seemed like a close match, but then…

** -Inside the shaft with no car-**

A Cassidy and a Jeremie got thrown in, with the other two looking on. **(A/N: I'm not telling you who won and who lost in this one.)**

The other two adjusted their glasses.

**-Back with Jim and William-**

The light was still red. "What are they doing in there?" Jim asked. "What's taking so long?" He knocked on the door. "Yumi! William! Come on!"

**-Inside the dark room-**

William was dipping prints in trays of rehalogenising bleach. "W-we're almost done, Jim. Wait until you see the prints. They're fantastic."

"Taken long enough," Jim called. "If I can see it. So hurry it up!"

"Believe me, Jim. We're going the fast as we can!" William was trying to cover up Yumi's absence.

**-Entrance to the factory-**

"So what does Jeremie and Cassidy's evil twins look like?" Yumi asked.

"Oh, just like Einstein and Cat-Girl, except with muscles and superpowers," Odd recounted, now all the way awake.

The elevator came for them (Aelita was in tow).

The three raced in and he pressed the button to go to the lab.

It took them there. Jeremie looked back and found them. Cassidy nodded her greeting.

"Where's Ulrich?" Jeremie asked.

Cassidy nodded in wonder. "Yeah, you guys."

"He'll be here as soon as he finishes his exam," Aelita answered, hands in her pockets.

"Okay, get down to the scanners on the double, huh?" Jeremie said. "I'll start up your transfer."

"What about you, Cassidy?" Yumi asked.

"I'll stick around in case our evil entities come to attack." Jeremie and Cassidy sounded a bit strange.

"Where did your nasty twins go?" Odd was a little suspicious.

"We have no idea, but the faster we deactivate the tower, the faster we'll be rid of them!" Jeremie was typing on the keys.

"He's right! Let's get going," Yumi agreed.

Odd wasn't too sure about something.

"Odd, what are you waiting for?" Jeremie asked. "Let's go!"

"Okay, okay, let's go, then!" Odd didn't sound too sure of it as Yumi pressed the button, but he snapped his fingers twice.

The elevator doors closed.

**-Mrs. Hertz's class-**

"Alright, time is almost up," Mrs. Hertz informed.

Ulrich was still jotting down answers to the exam as he was champing at the bit. "One more minute," he growled in a whisper.

**-Scanner Room-**

Odd's suspicions were still raised. "I'm just not sure. I should've looked them in the eye. You never know."

"I'm sure it was them, aren't you, Aelita?" Yumi got into her scanner.

He still wasn't sure as Aelita gave her affirmative. Something was not right with the two up in the lab.

"Female intuition, you can trust our flair," the Japanese girl smiled.

Odd shrugged. "If you say so."

"_Are you ready? I'll virtualize you the best I can to the activated tower."_

The doors to all three scanners closed.

"_I'm starting up the process."_

**-Back up in the lab-**

The Jeremie and the Cassidy in the lab showed identical eyes of XANA.

**-In the shaft with no car-**

Jeremie and Cassidy climbed up the ladder. "It's a good thing we survived, eh, Jeremie?" she asked. Up close, there was a bruise on her forehead where she hit a bar.

"Yes it is, but the battle is far from over," the genius looked down to the psychic. At least she held out.

The two kept climbing up the ladder.

**-In the Mountain Sector-**

"_Scanner Yumi, Scanner Aelita, Scanner Odd, Virtualization,"_ Jeremie said.

The three landed on the Mountain Sector.

Odd landed last. "Okay, Jeremie, bring our vehicles. We're raring to go over here."

"_**Sorry, Odd, but we have…another plan!"**_Jeremie's voice took an undertone.

The two bodyguards showed confused looks.

**-Back at the lab-**

Clone-Jeremie used electricity on the keys. **"Such a great plan. Bet you guys are going to just…flip out!"**

**-Back on Lyoko-**

Odd scratched the back of his head. "We've been had by Cassidy's and Jeremie's twins. Nothing like female intuition, huh, girls."

"Oh, no, what are they going to do?" Yumi was stuck with the fact that Odd was right.

"Do you want a little male intuition? Something very nasty!" Odd's eyes narrowed.

The clones were laughing.

**-Back to the Lab-**

Clone-Jeremie was typing on the keys faster than a cheetah on thoroughbred blood after a double espresso. Soon he pressed enter.

Clone-Cassidy was watching.

**-With Odd, Aelita, and Yumi-**

Odd and Yumi started to flicker like a light bulb losing its light.

"What's happening to us?" Yumi worried.

_If you want the truth, Clone-Jeremie made a bug in you and Odd's profiles,_ the true Cassidy's words floated in one of the Lyoko Warriors' heads.

"He's bugged you up!" Aelita realized in a snap.

"But…why us and not you?" Odd asked.

Yumi pointed. "There's your answer, look!"

The two turned to see the Schyphozoa and four Kankrelats.

**-The Lab-**

Clone-Jeremie seemed a bit angry as if he never planned the Schyphozoa coming at all.

**-The shaft with no car-**

Jeremie and Cassidy were still climbing the ladder.

**-Outside the darkroom-**

"William, Yumi, that's it, ya hear now. Open up!" Jim knocked.

"Can't, Jim. We're working on the contrast. You know how important the contrast is," William's voice shouted outside the darkroom. "I mean, you know better than we do. If we open up now, we'll lose everything."

"And Yumi, why do you leave all the talking William?"

There was a silence.

"Yumi, answer me!"

**-In the darkroom-**

"I'm right here, Jim. I guarantee you it'll be worth waiting for," William said in the worst imitation of Yumi ever heard. "William and I are making some wonderfully beautiful photographs."

"Uh…okay, but hurry it up, will you?**!**"

He shrugged. He was the only person in the darkroom.

"We will, Jim," William used his regular voice.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

The Kankrelats fired at will at the flickering Odd and Yumi and the non-flickering Aelita.

Odd ran head first and tried some of his arrows, but the projectiles seemed to go through the monsters. Confused, he looked at his hands. "Oh, no, it didn't work!"

The Kankrelats kept firing their lasers.

Yumi dodged but she had to run away fast.

Odd tried again. "At this rate there isn't going to be any winner."

They shot lasers at him but they went through him. "Go on, knock yourselves out!" He taunted.

The Schyphozoa, now without its escorts, was now trying to gain on Aelita. She was walking backwards to keep away from it.

Yumi ran behind a rock and saw the goings-on from there. "Oh, no! Aelita!" She flipped from her hiding space and then got shot in the side.

It seemed that every time the effects waned off for a second, then the Lyoko Warrior was solid. Yumi did some acrobatics, and then flicked out her fans to defend herself. She flickered again and the lasers passed through her.

"We can't do anything bugged up like this!" she protested.

Aelita was looking at the jellyfish-like monster in fear. She knew that if it gained control of her, then it would be good-bye to the Mountain Sector.

**-Back to the shaft with no car-**

Jeremie and Cassidy made it to the Scanner Room. He got off first, walked a little ways, and then she got off next. The bang she received did not affect her balance at all.

They sidled over to the control panel. Then Jeremie whispered, "When the doors open, grab onto me and hold on tight. I do not want you to fall to the ground."

"Sounds good. I do not wish to trek all the way up here and get angry with you," Cassidy smiled a little.

**-Back to the Schyphozoa-**

Aelita was still backing away from the Schyphozoa.

Yumi then barked a command, "Aelita, go on, you have to defend yourself!"

Jumping to avoid the tentacles, she did so. She unleashed two energy fields to try to hit the monster. But it dodged them.

Seeing that as useless, she turned and ran to an edge. Stopping and looking over the edge, she couldn't jump. The sky-blue digital sea was there.

Turning, the Schyphozoa was not merciful.

Aelita raised her arm, energy field in her hand, and was about to strike when the jellyfish-like monster hit her arm away with one of its tentacles. It was time for its turn.

The possession was about to start…

"It's horrible not being able to do anything!" Yumi said, still flickering.

Odd walked away from his Kankrelat friends. They were still firing and the lasers were passing through.

**-With the real Jeremie and the real Cassidy-**

Jeremie punched the code 167 and Cassidy clung onto him like a vine. When he got in, Cassidy let go.

"Let's get to the Lab. I can tell that Yumi and Odd are in need of direct assistance."

Jeremie didn't need any telling twice. He and she ran to the next ladder.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

The possession was complete and Aelita flipped to stick a landing. She started up.

"Now she's going to make a dash for the way tower," Odd said as two Kankrelats started to circle.

"This can't be!" Yumi cried.

"And given the circumstances, there's not much we can do." The Kankrelats were harmlessly passing through them.

_Patience, Odd,_ Cassidy's words fluttered into his head.

**-Entrance to the Factory-**

Ulrich made it to the entrance of the factory at last.

Rushing to the ropes, he swung over to the elevator and took it down to the lab.

**-Back to that Lab-**

Clone-Jeremie and Clone-Cassidy turned to see that their counterparts came back.

"You know that was a real lousy trick you did on us," Cassidy spat on the ground next to her.

"I take back what I said. You two aren't even half as smart as me!" Clone-Jeremie insulted. "As a matter of fact, you two are stupid dopes."

That was it for the second time. Cassidy ran up, forcibly tugged Clone-Jeremie out of his chair and _slammed_ him against the wall. "Say that again _one more time_ and I'll let you _have it!_" She forgot about her clone. Clone-Cassidy snuck up behind her and gave her a surprise attack.

"YIPE!" The electricity went through her. "Oh, you are asking for it my formidable opponent."

Clone-Cassidy scoffed. "Like you would hit a girl."

She smirked. "Yeah, but here's the thing…" She bucked at her female clone, which didn't have time to dodge. "…YOU AREN'T EVEN HUMAN!" Not one drop of guilt fell upon her.

The clone flew through the air into the wall. Cassidy had unfortunately let go of the one that insulted the both of them.

Clone-Jeremie and Clone-Cassidy started to zap their respective counterparts.

"**Sorry, but two of us has got to go,"** Both clones were about to attack their on-the-ground opponents.

Cassidy winced and was about to go unconscious when the elevator door opened. "U-Ulrich?" she wondered.

Ulrich hit the both of them. "Right! And I think it's going to have to be you two."

"Welcome to the party!" Cassidy got up weakly. "I need to go to Lyoko, NOW. Aelita's going to get rid of the Mountain Sector if I don't do something soon!"

"In that shape," Jeremie asked. "You can't."

"'Didn't stop Ulrich now, did it?" She knew exactly what she was talking about. **(A/N: Check the Cruel Dilemma chapter)**

"Hey, I think I may need glasses because I'm seeing double," Ulrich joked.

"Not funny, Stern," Cassidy was clambering down the ladder.

"Cassidy, are you sure you want to do this?" Ulrich asked.

"If it's to save the Mountain Sector, and stop the terrible twins, then YEAH, I'm sure I want to do this." She showed a determined look.

"Thanks, Ulrich, you got here just in time," Jeremie then raced to the Supercomputer.

"What's going on, on Lyoko?" Ulrich asked.

"I wish I knew." He looked at all the interchanging red data.

"XANA's bugged the profiles of the bodyguards but not Aelita, and if we don't hurry fast, then we can kiss adios to the Mountain Sector."

**-Lyoko-**

"_Odd, Yumi!"_

"Jeremie, is that you? For real?" Yumi asked.

"_Yes!"_

"_I can vouch for him. It's him, alright,"_ Ulrich called throughout the Mountainous Region.

"_And the real Cassidy is coming soon. Though she's in bad shape, she'll be coming in fast,"_ Jeremie told them.

"Will she use her EMP bullet?" Odd asked.

"_We'll just hope to say yes now,"_ Ulrich soothed.

"_How's it going over there?"_ Jeremie wondered.

"Well, you could say that we're all bugged up." Odd kept looking around himself.

"And a little ridiculous, too," Yumi agreed.

"_Okay, I'll take care of that!"_ Jeremie said.

"Hurry, Aelita's under XANA's spell," Odd said as a Kankrelat passed through him. "And she's heading for the way tower."

**-Back in the Lab-**

Both clones were waking up.

"_We could lose the Mountain Sector,"_ Odd sounded grim.

"Don't panic," the real Jeremie said. "I'm sending in Cassidy as backup."

"_Hurry up, Jeremie. I need to use my EMP bullet as fast as I can here!"_ Cassidy chastised. _"I don't want to lose the Mountain Sector either."_

"Okay, but hurry!"

Soon Cassidy was on Lyoko, un-bugged and ready to go. She landed on the OverWing.

She was off without a word and quickly caught up to Aelita. "I really hate to do this to you, Aelita. But XANA leaves me no choice." She took a deep not-necessary breath, and pounced on her roommate.

XANA-Aelita struggled, but Cassidy held her gun up in the air, and yelled, "EMP bullet!"

A few small nanoseconds later, a golden force field surrounded Cassidy and Aelita, ridding the second latter of the possession the multi-agent system left behind.

As soon as that happened, she got off Aelita, the pink cat female done with her job. The younger girl woke up and looked at her with green eyes wide with confusion. "Is that really you, Cassidy?"

"Yes, Aelita. Take the OverWing to the tower. It's in—" she pointed behind her. "—that direction. The real Jeremie will guide you. Just hurry."

**-Back at the Lab-**

The clones attacked Ulrich with everything they had.

**-Back on Lyoko-**

Cassidy raced back to try and find her friends while Aelita went off to the activated tower's direction.

"I'm almost there, Jeremie." She kept running.

**-Back at the Lab-**

"I'm starting up the debugging. I sure hope that this is going to work," Jeremie pressed a key and the bugs stopped.

**-Back on Lyoko-**

The flickering stopped on the geisha and the ninja warriors. The ninja noticed that there was a Kankrelat on his shoe and kicked it off.

They then ran up to meet up with their friend.

"Odd! YUMI!" Cassidy panted. "It's okay. The way tower is safe. Aelita's heading off in the right direction."

Then, they saw something come up behind their friend and froze. "Cassidy, you seem to have a tail-gaiter on your, um, well, tail," Odd pointed.

Cassidy looked behind herself and her mouth dropped open. The Schyphozoa was there.

"_CASSIDY! RUN!"_ Jeremie yelled.

She nodded and almost did so when an array of tentacles surrounded her.

The second possession started right away. When it let go, Cassidy ran to the way tower.

"Oh, no! Now _she's_ off to the way tower!" Odd pointed.

"_Try and stop her, HURRY!"_ Jeremie panicked.

Odd and Yumi ran off. "You're the main man, Einstein!"

"_Thanks! Now go and catch Cassidy before she enters the XANA code! I'm bringing up your vehicles."_

Soon, the vehicles the OverBoard and OverBike were there.

"_Sorry, Yumi, but Aelita's on the OverWing."_

Yumi didn't mind it. "I just hope we aren't too late."

The two hopped on their vehicles.

**-Back with Ulrich-**

The clones were giving him a hard time.

**-With Lyoko-**

"Here we go!" Odd smiled.

The Kankrelats kept shooting.

"It's great to have my svelte body back," Odd smiled.

Yumi laughed in agreement.

**-Back at the Lab-**

Ulrich got up from being electrocuted by the two clones, turned around, and pounced on the both of them.

"Things are heating up over here. 'Better hurry!" Jeremie told them.

"_We're on it!"_ Yumi told him. _"Where's Cassidy?"_

Jeremie looked on the screen. "Almost at the tower, but you can still catch her."

**-Back on Lyoko-**

Odd and Yumi kept going on course on Lyoko's Mountain Sector.

"Go on, Yumi! I'll cover you!" he waved her off.

"Okay!" She said.

Yumi sped off on the OverBike, whilst Odd did a U-Turn to the Kankrelats.

He shot an arrow to one of them and got his target. _Well done, Odd,_ Cassidy's kind words found him.

He dodged lasers as he sped back into the action. "YAHOO!" he jumped off his OverBoard, flipped, and made his way to the Kankrelats, jumping on them like stepping stones to the other side.

He ran to avoid a few lasers when one of the shots got to him and he devirtualized.

Then the Kankrelats looked to each other and turned around to shoot at Yumi.

**-Meanwhile-**

Aelita was still trying to find the activated tower.

**-Back to the action-**

Yumi's eyes were filled with worry. "I hope it's not going to be too late."

Cassidy was almost a few feet from the way tower.

**-Back to the Lab-**

Ulrich was experiencing the worst pain in his life from the clones.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

Cassidy was almost there.

"CASSIDY!" Yumi yelled, both in worry and in anger. Unsheathing a fan, she jumped off her boyfriend's vehicle and tossed it at her friend.

The XANAfied girl dodged and kept running to the tower.

Yumi landed right behind her. "NO!" she cried.

She raced to try and stop her, but it was too late. Cassidy had entered the tower.

"Oh, Jeremie…" Yumi sounded about ready to start crying.

**-In the scanner room-**

Odd came out and heard this news, _"…there was nothing I could do."_

He put his head on his arm.

**-In the Lab-**

"_Jeremie, we're about to lose the Mountain Sector!"_ Yumi sounded down.

The clones were having a bit of a good time torturing Ulrich.

"_Tell the news to Aelita and materialize her."_

Jeremie did so.

"_Don't forget to bring Cassidy and me in."_

The clones smiled in pure victory.

**-Back inside the way tower-**

Cassidy entered the XANA Code.

She fell out of the way tower and with a gasping thud, she realized what she had done. In shock she looked to Yumi. "Oh, Yumi!" If tears were possible, they would've been streaming down her face.

The only thing Yumi was able to do was help her stand up.

The two saw the sector dissolve around them, mountain by mountain, rock by rock.

"Jeremie, now's the time!" Yumi told him.

Then the rock holding them disappeared and the two fell. _"I'm going to rematerialize you."_

They disappeared before they could even touch the digital sea.

**-In the Scanner Room-**

Odd was contemplating the loss with Aelita when Yumi and Cassidy came out of the scanners.

The first thing Cassidy did was bang her head on the scanner's wall. Accentuating each bang with words, she said, "I. AM. SO. STUPID! THAT. DANGED. JELLYFISH. GOT. ME. WITH. MY. BACK. TURNED!"

Odd stopped her and brought her out. "It wasn't your fault."

"It was, Odd." Tears streamed down her face. "I should've paid more attention."

"Come on, let's have discussion time with Jeremie," And Odd had his arm around his real girlfriend every step of the way.

**-The Mountain Sector says good-bye. In the lab-**

The clones both disappeared, leaving Ulrich in tumultuous pain. When the others came up, Cassidy tried to help him, but every time someone touched him he gritted his teeth and yelled through them.

Jeremie ran to him. "You okay?"

Ulrich groaned his reply. "No…"

**-Later-**

"The Mountain Sector's completely disappeared," Jeremie announced.

Cassidy avoided looking at anyone until Yumi said, "It wasn't your fault, Cassidy. You couldn't have known the Schyphozoa was behind you."

"There's no way of getting into Sector 5, now!"

"Wait! Jeremie, I think in a few seconds something may surprise you," Cassidy's eyes went white with a vision until Ulrich smacked her arm (now fully recovered).

"Now XANA can attack the core of Lyoko at any time, and destroy it for good. And there'll be nothing we can do against it," Aelita sounded serious.

"It's all my fault. If I had kept my eyes open like everyone else, the Mountain Sector would still be here," Cassidy berated herself again.

"You saved me," Aelita soothed. "And that's what I call heroism."

"True."

"Lyoko's gone for good, and without it, there's not a thing we can do to fight XANA," Jeremie's words made Cassidy feel even guiltier.

Something made Jeremie sit up straight. He looked to the computer screen. A bar filled in light blue as white data scrolled on the screen.

"Wait a minute!" Jeremie looked a bit closer. "These are the calculations of the results I made this morning."

"What about them?" Odd asked.

"Jeremie, YOU DID IT!" Cassidy cheered.

"Did what?" Odd was getting a little frustrated with what Jeremie and Cassidy weren't telling the rest of the gang.

"I think I may have found a way to virtualize you directly into Sector 5 at last!" Jeremie said.

"IT'S A GREAT THING, EINSTEIN. YOU DID IT!" Cassidy celebrated.

"You mean the struggle against XANA goes on?" Ulrich asked.

"He's not rid of us yet!" Jeremie muttered darkly.

"If that's the case, then we need somebody else. After what's happened, we don't have a choice it seems," Yumi came to terms.

Everyone was now looking at her as if she lost her mind.

"What? I changed my mind, so?" Yumi defended.

Ulrich got up and gave the affirmative.

**-Outside the darkroom-**

Jim was trying to unlock the darkroom so he could give William a good talking to about hogging it.

"Hey, right now! Ya hear. William and Yumi, I'm going to open up this door and don't think I can't do it. I used to be a safecracker, I mean a locksmith." The door opened and the gym teacher fell in, undeveloped prints flew around in different places.

"Aw…we told you not to come in Jim," William groaned. "Now you ruined my pictures, I mean, _our_ pictures."

Jim stood up. "Yumi? Where's Yumi?"

"Here I am," Yumi came in. "So un-cool for our prints. We worked really hard on them."

Jim was so ashamed.

**-In the Quad-**

William was piecing together the whole thing. "So then, you're saying my dream…really wasn't a dream?" Yumi and Cassidy turned around.

Cassidy nodded. "It's a bit hard to believe."

"Right!" Yumi said.

"It really happened? Are you two sure?"

"We are." Cassidy didn't even smile.

"And you two are also sure that you two need my help?" William smiled at the two girls.

"We are!"

**-A few yards away-**

"Do you think he'll say yes?" Aelita asked Odd.

"Of course. If you asked him to dive off a cliff, he'd do it in a second," Odd acted some of the parts out.

Jeremie turned to Ulrich. "By the way, how did your physics test go?"

"Hey, it went really well. Who'd have thought that studying for a test would help?" Ulrich asked.

"Ulrich's turning into a good student for once; William's turning into a Lyoko Warrior—our little group is going through a lot of huge changes," Odd noted.

The three agreed.

**-Back to the three a few yards off-**

Yumi, William, and Cassidy did a three-person high-five.


	41. We hit the Final Round right in the nose

**I don't own Code Lyoko, but I do own Cassidy.**

**-That night in the elevator-**

William (Now part of the group) was commenting excitedly about the factory. All of a sudden a flashback appeared…

**FLASHBACK #10**

_He was now on this bright orange part of this virtual world. He was fighting really tall monsters that were about ten times his size. He already got one, and then was almost killed by another when someone saved him. He looked up to see a girl that had Aelita's voice._

"_Need a little help?" she asked._

_He collected his weapon and cut off two of the legs of the tall monster still standing. It crawled to him. Running up on it, he stabbed it in an eye symbol, and jumped off._

"_You're back at last, that's great!" she smiled._

_Back? Back from where?_

_He looked to her. "Good to see you again, __**Aelita**__!"_

**END OF FLASHBACK**

"Yikes!" He yelled out loud.

Cassidy, by his side, took concern. "What is it?"

"I was on the virtual world and I was fighting some monsters," William explained. "And this girl helped me. And then I said her name was Aelita. Totally weird."

"First flashback, perhaps?" Yumi sighed a little.

"Not his first," Odd chirped. "He had had one before. He said that he was a Loco Warrior or something and swore to something one day."

Cassidy stared at her boyfriend with wide eyes. He noticed. "What? I remembered it. It's no big deal."

They let Jeremie off into the lab and took it down to the Scanner Room. They explained everything about the supercomputer, Lyoko, XANA, and Cassidy's powers.

William was in front of the center scanner.

"'You swear not to give away the secret?" Yumi asked.

"Even at the cost of your life, William Dunbar?" Cassidy nodded in agreement.

"I swear," William said formally.

"_Good answer, William. Now for the final step, the scanner. We're going to record a virtual image of you into the Supercomputer. After that, you'll be immune to the returns to the past."_ Jeremie opened a scanner for William. _"That'll really make you part of the group."_

"Well, you ready? You scared?" Ulrich teased.

"Me, no, why? What about you, were you scared the first time?" William threw the question back at him.

"No!"

"Oh, yeah!" Odd acted like he was there when he wasn't.

"Odd. No, he wasn't. He came with me, and I checked his expression a little before the doors closed, they were determined and brave," Cassidy smiled.

Ulrich smiled at her, glad that she was on his side for once. He whispered something in her ear. "I bet that on Lyoko, you will freeze there before anything bad happens. Loser has to do whatever the winner says for a week, within reason that is."

She smiled wickedly. "In the Core Zone and you've got yourself a deal."

"Hey, you can still change your mind," Yumi told William.

"Are you kidding?" He stepped into the Scanner and turned around.

The doors closed.

"_Scanner William!"_ Jeremie announced.

**-In the Lab-**

A virtual incarnation was being formed. "Welcome to the club, William!" Jeremie smiled.

**-In the scanner room-**

The scanner opened to reveal the newest Lyoko Warrior. Odd was concerned. "Well tell us. How do you feel now?"

"Ready to take on XANA and his monsters!" William smiled. "I just can't wait to see what I look like on Lyoko or Cassidy's look too."

"Whoa there, hang on, bucko!" Cassidy used her almost-correct southern accent. "XANA is way too tough for the likes of you."

"Plus, before you can put up a decent fight on Lyoko, it's going to take time," Ulrich agreed. "A lot of time."

"At first, you better just hang back, check things out, and to try to learn," Aelita smiled.

"Okay, okay," William defended with a smile. "Don't flip out. I'm not the kind of guy that steals the show."

"Oh, that reminds me. Guys, in a vision last night, I heard that everyone's going to be busy. I have come with advice for some. Aelita, you are good, and so is William," The two showed confused looks but accepted it. "For Odd, if Ulrich is gone during the skateboard competition, you better get to the factory because it might be an emergency." Odd was really confused. "Ulrich, give the most epic speech you ever gave in your life and then leave, because I have a feeling that your father is coming—a strong one—and you'll need to do that fast. Yumi, give Sissi to Hiroki, she'll watch over him."

"But Sissi _hates_ me!" Yumi gulped.

William raised his hand. "I'll get Sissi. You don't have to worry about asking her."

"Jeremie, if you need to, escape using the bathroom. In the morning, you'll be interviewed by Milly and Tamiya," She was easing advice like no other.

"Cassidy, why do you know that Aelita and I are fine?" William looked to his ex-sweetheart as if she stunned him.

"Because you two will be in the factory at the right time. And I'll be with you, William," Cassidy nodded.

**-In the elevator-**

Aelita, Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, Cassidy, and William were coming out near the entrance when Cassidy dragged Odd back in. "I need to talk to you for a bit, Odd. Come with me, please."

He was confused but went with the drag. "What's going on, Cat-Girl?"

"Samantha Knight is coming. All three of us know that if she sees you and me together, she'll break up with you. That's why I think we should only be friends for until the visit is over. I'm stronger now. Thanks for the help, Odd." Cassidy's heart didn't like the decision, but it was needed.

"Okay, no big deal," Odd smiled.

They then joined the group again. "I'm really hoping that XANA doesn't go on the attack tomorrow like Cassidy said. I'm signed up for the inter-Academy skateboard championship. And I'm going to win it, too."

"I know you will rock, Odd," she smiled. "You are a maestro of the board."

Yumi and Aelita laughed a little.

"You're not someone who likes to steal the show either," Yumi chortled.

"Odd is right, because in life you should always aim for the top!" William smiled.

"Why not? That way if you fall, you'd crash a lot harder!" Ulrich chuckled.

That joke made the missing-by-one-member group laugh.

**-The next morning at the competition-**

Odd adjusted his kneepad. "Thanks for coming with me, Ulrich."

"Well somebody's got to pick you up and dust you off every time you face-plant," Ulrich joked. "I mean, what are friends for, Odd."

Jim came in. "Good afternoon, everyone. Kadic Academy is very proud to welcome you all today to this grand skateboard championship. I'm sure all of you are going to knock us out with your nollies, your Ollies, your kick-flips, and other smith-grinds."

"Wow, incredible. You're really up on your skateboarding, Jim," Ulrich was impressed as Odd adjusted an elbow-pad.

"Yep, I sure am. Actually I was a roller-derby champion way back in the 70s," Jim said.

"Oh, what a shame that you'd rather not talk about it," the samurai boy grinned.

"Actually, I'd be glad to, but I don't have the time," He blew his whistle. "Okay into it, Paibolia!"

Two contestants got up to the coping and Jim blew the whistle. The two did their best but then they wiped out. Ulrich winced. He hoped it didn't happen to Odd.

Then two more contestants wiped. Ulrich was definitely worried. Would Odd wipe out?

Then it was Odd's turn on the half-pipe coping. Ulrich looked very concerned.

Then when Jim blew the whistle…

Odd was pulling off some radical moves!

Ulrich's worries dissipated. His friend was doing okay. He clapped and cheered.

When Odd was done, he slowed to a stop on the flat. "And there you go. The perfect combination of exceptional skills and elegance. In a word: Classy."

A girl of African descent came up to him. "Hey, Odd, great run out there." She had some red streaks in her hair, a black shirt, and a reddish skirt.

Odd didn't take a second to figure who she was. "S-S-S-S-S-SAM?" He fell on the flat and his board bounced and fell to his knee. Cassidy was right. Sam did come. "How are you?"

"Not bad," Samantha smiled.

"Now that was real class," Ulrich said.

Odd giggled a little, a blush was coming to his cheeks.

**-Jeremie and Aelita? What are they up to?-**

Jeremie was typing on the keys with Aelita watching.

A green (!) appeared on the screen and it sounded like Jeremie was about to make a call to someone. "Hey, it works!" He was really pleased.

"Really?" She was excited.

"Yeah! Thanks to this program, we should be able to find your father on Lyoko," Jeremie was happier than Odd on spaghetti night.

"Let's go check it out in the lab right now," Aelita said.

**-Outside Jeremie's room-**

A camera was rolling. Milly got in front of it. "And this is the room of our man of the hour, Jeremie Belpois!" She announced and knocked on his door.

Jeremie opened his door. "Huh? What are you doing here?"

"You're kidding. Don't tell us you forgot!" Milly was a hint surprised.

"We're filming you for a whole day for our special edition of the Kadic Herrald: A Day in the Life of Jeremie Belpois."

"You are? I did forget completely. I'm sorry but I have too many things to do today." He wasn't trying to be mean; he had just too many priorities on his plate.

"Great, we wanted to film the Kadic Academy valedictorian during his busy day," Milly told him.

"You won't even know we're there. We swear," Tamiya said.

"Don't worry. I'll go down to the computer lab by myself. I'll call you after I tested the program," Aelita whispered to her knight in glasses.

That took a weight off his shoulders. "Okay, I'm all yours now."

Milly and Tamiya showed smiles.

**-Back at the competition-**

Odd smiled at the girl who came so suddenly. "I'm really glad to see you, Sam, but aren't you supposed to be living somewhere out on the coast?"

"I am, but I'm also signed up for the skateboard championship. I'm only here for the day," she smiled.

"Samantha Knight!" Jim announced.

"My turn, don't move. I'll be right back," Samantha skated off.

The blush grew to a kinda fuchsia. "How weird is that to run into her. I'd almost forgotten how cool and how pretty she is."

"And how you're really _in love_," Ulrich teased.

"Come on, can't you like someone without being in love?" Odd was still blushing.

"You're the one totally in love, good buddy!" his buddy teased.

He on the other hand was watching Sam do well on her run. The blush was evident on his cheeks.

**-At the Factory-**

Aelita was working on the program when a window appeared in front of the one she was working on. It showed Sector 5.

"Oh, no!" she gasped.

**-Jeremie's interview under the arches-**

"Okay, so for breakfast, do you like juice or milk?" Milly asked.

"Hot Chocolate."

"Eggs or toast?"

"Cereal," Jeremie looked off to the side.

"Butter or jam?"

"Maple syrup!" Jeremie looked back at them. "H-Honestly, are you sure your readers care about this stuff."

"Look, Jeremie, I'm the reporter, and I know what our readers want to read," Milly was getting a bit hot under the collar.

His phone rang.

**-Back at the Lab-**

"_Aelita? Is something wrong?"_ He asked in concern.

"Yes, XANA's launched an attack in the chamber of the core of Lyoko!" Aelita said quickly.

**-Back with Jeremie-**

"Okay, tell the others. I'll be there just as soon as I can," Jeremie hung up with her.

Milly and Tamiya were arguing. "So, _you're_ the reporter. What does that make me, then? Jeremie's right, ya know. Those are some stupid questions!"

"If you have better ones, what's stopping you from asking them, huh?" Milly shouted.

"You are, okay?" Tamiya shot back.

Jeremie had to set the peace. "Um…ladies! I have an idea. We can do this interview later on, after you two have finished fighting with one another."

The red-haired reporter didn't seem to think so. "You're staying here and answering some of my fascinating questions!"

Jeremie sighed. This was going to be one long afternoon.

**-With William and Cassidy (We interrupt this fan fiction with an interrupter)-**

William tried to punch Cassidy but she caught his blow by crossing her hands just like Ulrich showed her. "Good catch, Cassidy. I'm impressed!" Yumi smiled.

"Well—" she tried to kick him. "—I did have excellent profesores."

"Excellent what?" William stopped to take a breather.

"Teachers," Cassidy panted.

He smiled. "You are still a great fighter."

"Yumi, Ulrich, and Jim taught me some of the ropes." She went and leaned herself against a tree.

"And had beaten Ulrich a few times," Yumi giggled. "She did really well."

Cassidy guffawed and then sighed. "Something wrong, Cassidy?" he asked.

"No. Nothing is wrong. I just—" She tried to speak to William but her words caught in her throat.

"Calm down," Yumi soothed.

"Tongue-tied?" William asked.

Then the psychic girl walked up and hugged William warmly. His eyes went wide. So did Yumi's eyes. "Cassidy?" He was concerned.

She looked up and mouthed, "There's no need to speak. I'm fine."

The fires of love were heating up again.

**-Back to Odd's contest-**

Odd was still doing very good moves.

Samantha watched with interest. "Oh, that Odd is so…so…"

"So messy. You wouldn't believe what his room looks like," Ulrich cracked.

"He's like me. My room is a permanent disaster zone," She had her head in her hands.

"Seems you two were made for each other," Ulrich then heard his phone ring. He picked it up. "Aelita?" there was a pause. "…no problem. I'll tell Odd and we'll be right there!"

He just got off the phone when… "Ulrich Stern! Someone here would like to see you."

The visitor looked to be Caucasian. He had dark brown hair, dark eyes, and was wearing a yellow business suit over a white shirt and a dark red tie.

"Hello, Ulrich," He said.

Ulrich knew the man straight away. "Dad, but…"

**-Aelita in the Lab-**

She typed on Yumi's number. "Yumi, emergency. XANA's attacking the chamber in the Core of Lyoko!"

**-In the forest-**

"Okay, calm down, we're on our way," Yumi nodded and hung up. "I'll tell William and Cassidy."

William and Cassidy were still sparring with each other.

"XANA's on the attack."

**-Back with Ulrich and his problem-**

"What are you doing here?" Ulrich asked.

Ulrich's dad was no-nonsense today. "I'm worried about your grades, son. That's the reason I came. I think you and I have to talk."

"I'm sorry, but today—today's not a very good time!" He scratched the back of his head.

"And I think the time is long overdue," Mr. Stern said.

**(A/N: While these Ulrich vs. his dad scenes go on, the author is cringing. She **_**hates**_** his dad.)**

"It's just that I—wasn't expecting to see you…"

"And I wasn't expecting to receive a report card as bad as yours was. Come with me, now. Mr. Delmas was kind enough to lend us his office!"

Ulrich looked back at Sam. Could she send a message?

He slid into her a bit quickly. "Sam, can you give Odd a message for me?"

"Yeah sure," Sam said.

"Tell him to get to 'he-knows-where' right away!" Ulrich hastened.

"Okay."

He then left her on the bleachers. Odd was still doing good stunts.

**-With William, Cassidy, and Yumi-**

William, Cassidy, and Yumi were racing through the sewers…Yumi on her skateboard, William on his skateboard, and Cassidy on her bike.

**-Back to Odd-**

Odd was through with his run for now. He raced back to Sam. "Wow! Now this is what I call fun!" he noticed Ulrich wasn't there. "Hey, where did Ulrich go, Sam?"

"I don't know," Sam said.

"He didn't say anything?"

"No," Her eyes were telling a lie.

The suspicion was there and back in a flash. "Okay, then tell me, how was I?"

"Wow! You really rock!"

**-Back to William, Cassidy, and Yumi-**

They were in the Lab with Aelita now. "If XANA's monsters destroy the sphere, Lyoko is gone for good. And without Lyoko there isn't any way to fight XANA."

"This is turning into a grave day!" Cassidy's eyes whitened a little.

"We read you loud and clear!" William smiled.

"Bad news, Ulrich's with his dad, Jeremie's at the interview and Odd's at the skateboard competition," Tears welled up in her nearly-white eyes.

"Well then, what are we waiting for?"

Yumi slapped Cassidy's arm. "And I had another sporadic nightmare. It was clearer, but still very fuzzy." Cassidy shrieked.

"For the others to get here," Aelita answered William.

"They can meet up with us later," he said.

"I'm not too sure on that," Cassidy's heart pounded loud enough for the whole factory to hear it.

"Let's not waste time. After all, that's the reason why you recruited me, right?" he smiled.

"Right," Cassidy felt so many visions tugging her in different directions but she was able to keep them straight.

**-At Jeremie's interview-**

Tamiya's camera focused on different mushrooms. "Mycology is a very complicated science," Jeremie announced. "It's the branch of botany that deals with all forms of fungi. There's several thousand species and they range in form from a single-cell to a mass branch phelemental typhade that authorizes sprouting bodies. The kingdom includes yeasts, molds, smuts, and mushrooms." **(A/N: For all you mushroom specialists I'm sorry about the spelling.)**

"That's what you call an interesting question?" Milly asked, miffed.

"The question is fine, it's the answer that's a bore," Tamiya said.

Jeremie's phone rang again and he picked it up. "Yes, Aelita."

"I'm sorry, but I've decided to take back control of this interview!" Milly said to Tamiya.

"Oh, sure, that's typical. As soon as I'm the one who asks a question you get all bent out of shape," Tamiya was angry.

"Really untrue!"

"Yes it is!"

"William's right, Aelita. Saving Lyoko takes top priority," Jeremie said.

**-Back at the lab-**

"_So go in, and I'll be there as fast as I can to transfer Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi when I get there,"_ Jeremie said.

"Okay but don't drag your feet!" Aelita told him.

Yumi nodded. "I'll watch the Lyoko mission. If anything goes wrong, I can warn you."

"Sounds good. Cassidy, William, come on, let's go!" Aelita told the others.

"Yes!" William was finally going to Lyoko.

**-Back at the disastrous interview-**

Milly and Tamiya were still arguing.

Jeremie hung up his call and decided for himself to set the peace. "Uh…ladies, I have to…go to the bathroom. You weren't planning on filming me in the bathroom?" he smiled. _Good, you've taken my advice._

**-With the three girls and the only boy-**

"I've started up the virtualization process to bring us three directly into Sector 5. We only have a few seconds to get into the Scanner Room and go in!" Aelita told the ones going.

"Let's go!" William nodded and spun around to go to the elevator.

**-Outside the bathroom door-**

"How long are you planning to shoot this door?" Milly asked snidely.

"It's really interesting how long the good students use the bathroom, right?" Tamiya had her camera rolling.

"Wrong!"

**-Outside the Science Building-**

Jeremie hung off on the eave and dropped to his own two feet. Then he raced on foot to the factory.

**-With Aelita, Cassidy, and William-**

They got into separate scanners, ready to go into Lyoko.

Soon they were virtualized into the Arena.

Cassidy however hid in her invisibility cloak (thanks to her tube). William looked at himself with amazement then to his zabanto. "Wow that's some really classy gear." He studied it as if he were a large knife.

He looked around for Cassidy. "Where's Cassidy? Didn't she get virtualized?"

"I'm right here and I'll reveal myself when we get to battle. I—I don't know how you'll take my virtual form yet," She shook her head.

William shrugged. He was in a silvery-white outfit with a nice silver and dark grey pair of pants and a dark red belt. "And you?" He asked Aelita. "No weapon? You fight with your bare hands? What's your superpower?"

Aelita clenched a fist. "This isn't a videogame, William. Let us remind you that we have an important mission to accomplish."

"Okay, okay, sorry. So where are the monsters," He turned around.

"Follow me; we only have about a couple of minutes to trip a key lever that gets us into the chamber of the Core of Lyoko."

William sounded up to it. "Killer! This is ten thousand times better than Galactic Battle."

"Reminder: This isn't a videogame," Cassidy said.

The wall opened up and the three ran inside to the transition room.

"_You have two minutes and fifty nine seconds to stop the countdown,"_ Yumi warned the three.

**-Jeremie-**

Jeremie was getting to the factory as fast as he could.

**-The three in Sector 5-**

William, Cassidy, and Aelita were running the fastest they could run. Cassidy kept being invisible.

Then they entered the Core Zone. "It's a movie set, wow!" William was amazed.

Aelita found the key. "The Key! It's over there!"

"I'm on it!" William ran for it.

"No, wait," Aelita and Cassidy told him.

He raced until a block came up, stopping him from running. "Oh…what?"

The sound of Creepers came to his ears. "What's that noise I hear?"

Cassidy unveiled herself. "One of the monsters created by XANA."

"Creepers!" Aelita answered.

As if the words were magic, a cube dropped out of the floor, like a trapdoor, and a few Creepers came out.

William had one look at his ex-girlfriend and then to the monsters. "Creepy crawlers. I love this! Aelita, you take care of the key. Cassidy and I will take care of these guys." He lifted his zabanto and it just slammed down to the ground. He had to pick it up again.

"Watch it! They can be really tough!" Aelita warned as Cassidy jumped in to join him.

"Works for me, so can I!" William charged.

"Forgive the gung-ho behavior of my ex. He couldn't help stop beating me in a videogame," Cassidy shook her head as well as Aelita then charged into battle.

"GERONIMO!" He ran with his sword on his shoulder.

Aelita ran off to get to the Key mechanism.

There were four Creepers.

**-Ulrich vs. his dad; looks like his Dad's winning-**

"I really want to understand why your grades are so consistently poor," Ulrich's dad drilled.

"It's just that, I can't seem to concentrate all the time," Ulrich sounded like a little kid.

"Why not?" Mr. Stern was sitting in Mr. Delmas's chair.

"Well you remember when you were my age…" he began.

"Yes, and at your age I had straight A's. And I was preparing my college application," Mr. Stern yelled.

Ulrich closed his eyes.

**-Back to Lyoko, PRAISE THE LORD-**

Aelita was making strides to the key mechanism, dodging the rising floor blocks that tried to get in her way.

William and Cassidy were busy getting rid of the Creepers. William got one with a sort of energy field and Cassidy shot at another. He slashed at another. He was smoking now. He slashed at the fourth one and ran in to get rid of three more. "William, lets not get too cocky now," Cassidy warned, shooting at another.

He spun around to get rid of three Creepers at once.

"Okay, I take that back, that was cool!" She nodded.

"Wow, I can't believe it! I am the man!"

After the monsters were defeated, William went up to her. _Is that the reason why you were scared?_ His thoughts sang to her.

"Y-yes," she realized that she revealed herself.

He sighed. "You don't have to hide what you are on the outside. I care about the inside that counts." He smiled.

A tingly feeling numbed the pink cat female's feet. "Really?"

"Really. Next time, don't be scared to show me what you look like on Lyoko, because personally, I think it is cute," William came closer to her.

The feeling numbed her knees next. "Even if I have a tail?" She didn't know if she should faint or lose her footing.

"I like your tail." He put a hand on her hair, smoothing it out, came closer to her face, and kissed her fully on the lips.

That shocked Cassidy. "W-William, you…" But she never got to finish her sentence.

Her eyes went blank and her body, rigid.

Aelita was wasting no time trying to get to the key.

"_Only thirteen seconds left, Aelita!"_ Yumi's voice echoed around the room. _"Cassidy, what's going on?"_

Cassidy stood shocked.

Using one of the rising floor blocks as an elevator of sorts, Aelita managed to stop the countdown in time.

"_Great job, Aelita!"_

She turned to see William slicing a Creeper.

"It's okay, William and Cassidy, you can come over here!" she told them.

She didn't know that her roommate was frozen.

"Wait, just one or two more of them, okay?" William pleaded. "This is too cool."

He got rid of two more as walls began to rise. "William," Aelita said.

Cassidy was on William's side of the room.

"No…" she whispered.

"_Aelita, what's going on? Where are Odd and Ulrich?"_ Jeremie asked.

"How should I know? They're not in the computer Lab?" Aelita asked.

"_No!"_

"Hey, Jeremie, there's this weird-looking creature that just showed up." William was backing up from the Schyphozoa. "Some kind of…uh…giant jellyfish."

"_WHAT?__**!**__ Aelita, you have to get to William!"_ Jeremie told her.

Aelita ran through a corridor. _"Hurry! You have to go around the outside. And why isn't Cassidy doing anything?"_ Jeremie showed concern.

"I don't know," Aelita answered. "She was frozen when I turned to see them after I tripped the mechanism."

She ran around the hole and passed a hallway. _"Take the next hallway on your left. NO, LEFT!"_

Aelita about-faced and went in the direction that Jeremie told her (half-belatedly).

"_Faster before the Schyphozoa goes after William!"_

She raced through the hallway. _"Take the Corridor on the right! Go on!"_

She did so.

**-Back to William-**

"_William, get out of there! Hurry up!"_ Jeremie ordered. _"William, do you hear me?"_

"I'm not afraid of some dumb jellyfish." He lifted his sword.

Cassidy's eyes didn't see the events playing in front of her. Her ears didn't hear the words.

"_William, just do what I say!"_ Jeremie commanded. _"I don't know what the Schyphozoa wants from you, but it can't be good."_

The jellyfish-like monster knocked his sword out of the way.

It landed a few feet away from him and a few yards from Cassidy.

"Rats!" William was now defenseless.

**-Back with Aelita-**

"_Aelita, take the next hallway on your left. It's not much further,"_ Jeremie said to her.

**-Back to William-**

"_William, get out of there, NOW!"_ Jeremie told him.

William had collected his zabanto.

"_William, do you read me?"_

"Relax, the Schyphozoa hasn't moved an inch," William said.

But he was dead wrong. The monster had moved an inch, if not a few feet.

"Must be scared or—WHOA!"

William's possession had begun.

Cassidy couldn't see the action nor could she hear it. Her lips were frozen.

"_I don't believe it! CASSIDY, MOVE! USE YOUR EMP BULLET!"_ Jeremie cried.

But she was too frozen and her brain felt fried.

"_William's been captured by the Schyphozoa! Oh, no! Cassidy's still not moving!"_

**-Back to Aelita-**

"_Aelita, XANA's possessed William through the Schyphozoa. Cassidy's still not moving for some reason unknown!"_

"I'm almost there," Aelita panted, racing back to the room.

She saw Cassidy first and tried almost everything to get her to move. The only thing that moved was her tail and it was thrashing as if in ecstasy.

Her tube was still in her hand.

Aelita then saw the Schyphozoa leaving and William on the ground. He was trying to get up.

She went near him. "William, are you okay?"

He panted and then looked to her. The eye symbol was in his eyes.

Aelita conjured up her energy fields and tried to hit him. But William cut through them.

It was his turn. William conjured up the energy field in his zabanto and let it rip on Aelita.

She devirtualized in a matter of seconds.

"YAH!" William roared.

He then turned his attention to the frozen one. A little voice told him to "leave the frozen".

He ran off.

**-Back to Ulrich and his dad-**

"I'm especially concerned about your friends, Ulrich," Mr. Stern said.

_NOW,_ Cassidy's words made him jump.

"What about them? You don't know them. You don't even know me in fact! Why must we keep having the fights? I am who I am! Nothing's going to change that. I'm in love, I have a roommate. I have friends that care about me. And I am _nothing _like you! You may have given me the breath of life, but I am through with this!"

He ran out, leaving his father dumbstruck.

**-Back with the two in the Lab-**

Things did not seem brighter for Yumi and Jeremie. Cassidy was stuck, William was possessed by XANA, and Aelita just got devirtualized. Odd and Ulrich were nowhere to be found yet.

**-With Ulrich NOW FREE of this father's clutches-**

"Odd, what are you doing?" Ulrich ran through the forest. "You're not at the computer lab?**!**"

**-With Odd-**

"Why should I be in the Lab? I'm in the finals," Odd protested.

**-Ulrich-**

"But didn't Sam tell you?" Ulrich asked.

**-Odd-**

"Tell me what?"

Sam did her stunts. Then she put her board to her hand. "I'd like to see you top that!"

Odd was feeling betrayed. "Sam, why didn't you give me Ulrich's message. It was really important."

Sam walked up to him. "Important? I'm sorry. I just—I just wanted you to stay. We're so lucky to be together again. Even if it's just for a day. I'm leaving tonight."

"I know how you feel, Sam, but there's something I have to do."

"Even more important than hanging out with me? Are you still with that girl?" Sam asked.

"No. She broke up with me so you and I could stay together. And, unfortunately yes."

"The next contestant is Odd Della Robbia. Odd?"

**-In the Lab-**

The situation wasn't getting any brighter.

"I don't believe it," Jeremie said.

**-In the Chamber of the Core of Lyoko-**

William was there already.

"**Ready?"** he asked the Creepers.

The ones around the core charged up their lasers.

"**YAH!"** He said in a sort of battle cry.

The Creepers cheered.

**-In the elevator-**

"Jeremie, we're here. Fire up the scanners," Ulrich said.

"_At last!"_ Jeremie was relieved. _"Get to the Scanner Room. I'll explain everything to you two on the way!"_

Odd and Ulrich stopped to pick up Yumi and then they were on their way. The three went to the scanners and Jeremie fired up the virtualization processes.

**-In Sector 5-**

The Creepers charged up their lasers more.

William's zabanto glowed white. Unleashing the field from his sword, he ordered, **"FIRE!"**

**-In the arena-**

"_Virtualization!"_ Jeremie announced.

Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi landed in the arena. The wall opened for them to get in. They raced to the Core Zone to find that Cassidy didn't move one micron.

Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi fired off suggestions until Odd pointed his index finger in the air. "I have the perfect Idea!"

He whispered in her ear a school-and-age appropriate joke. A few seconds later, Cassidy unfroze and laughed. "Odd, that's funny!"

Still not knowing what had frozen her, Odd fired off jokes (School-and-age appropriate, of course) until they got to the Elevator Room.

They jumped at the right moment and got to the Celestial Dome.

"By the way, what did William do to you that made you freeze like that?" Odd asked.

Cassidy froze in the Celestial Dome. "Uh…"

Odd fired off another joke off the grill and she laughed.

She got onboard with Yumi to get to the Core Room.

"_We just lost the first shield layer!"_ Jeremie announced.

**-With William-**

His zabanto glowed white again.

**-Lab-**

"If the second shield layer goes…"

"…Lyoko will disappear forever…"

"And William along with it!" Jeremie finished.

**-In the Core Room-**

Odd, Cassidy, Ulrich, and Yumi raced quickly to the inside. They got to the top.

**-Lab-**

"At last, they're there now!"

**-In Lyoko-**

The four found themselves in the chamber now.

William led the charge. **"Fire!"**

All that was left was just the core itself. The shield layers were gone now.

"WILLIAM!" Ulrich yelled.

That yell got William's attention. He threw his sword down and then dropped down, making a crater as he did so.

"He doesn't look too happy to see us," Odd said.

William grabbed his zabanto.

"Yup, looks like me when I saw my father!" Ulrich didn't seem to happy in that instance.

"Did you give the speech?" Cassidy wondered.

"Yes I did."

"Bueno."

**-Back in the Lab-**

"If we lose Lyoko, we lose my father as well!" Aelita worried.

"That's right!" Jeremie nodded, frown on his face.

A window came up. "Is—is that the program I started up a while ago?" she asked.

"Yes, unbelievable. It really works!" Jeremie found reason to smile. "I found Franz Hopper!"

"Run the rematerialization program. Hurry!"

**-Back to the Gang in the Core Room-**

William had finally dislodged his zabanto and was showing a really nasty grin.

Ulrich gave the signal. "Okay…NOW!" He whispered.

Cassidy froze. "Ulrich…I…"

"If you want to fight with me against your ex, go ahead. Nothing's stopping you!" Ulrich nodded.

"Thanks. Plus I owe you anyway!" Cassidy remembered the bet.

Odd and Yumi ran up the stairs. William didn't like that as he shot a type of energy field at Odd. He devirtualized immediately.

Ulrich scowled and sprinted around to the other side. "It's not very nice to attack people from behind!" He warned William.

Cassidy went into a freeze. Her eyes were blank and her ears forgot to comprehend any sounds.

Ulrich unsheathed his katana. William used the attack and got rid of the sword. Before Ulrich could go and get it, he smote him from behind. Ulrich devirtualized immediately.

Then William saw that Yumi got rid of a Creeper. He had to do something. He got to her stair and got her from there too.

Before she was gone, Yumi said this, "I knew it was a bad idea to bring you into the group…"

But William wasn't done yet. He still had one Lyoko Warrior to devirtualize. Cassidy. She wasn't moving.

He jumped to her level, played with her hair, and then smashed her with his zabanto.

She regained her senses on Lyoko too late.

"**YAH!"** William cried.

**-Back in the scanner room-**

The doors that Odd got out of opened and Cassidy came out. "Franz Hopper is going to send a message…soon," she said before she fell out of the scanner in a faint.

"_Nothing can stop them anymore,"_ Jeremie told them.

**-Back at the Lab-**

"They're going to destroy the sphere!" Aelita worried.

"Almost there!" He had to materialize Aelita's dad.

**-With William-**

He floated to the layer-less Core. Nothing could stop them now. The Creepers cheered. This was it.

William, possessed by XANA, stabbed the Core of Lyoko with his zabanto.

Everything glowed gold.

**-To the Elevator-**

The three friends (Odd holding Cassidy), came to the Lab, holding despondent looks.

"This can't be!" Aelita cried as Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi ran to the computer.

**-Back on Lyoko-**

Streaks of gold went to the stabbed core and then…everything exploded.

**-With the Lab-**

"I couldn't rematerialize Franz Hopper. I didn't have enough time," He told his friends.

"We lost everything," Aelita frowned.

"William as well!"

**-Deep in the blackness-**

William was there, curled up in a fetal position in a black and red battle suit. Then he came out of there, the XANA markings on his chest and forehead but not in his eyes anymore.

**-At the Hermitage-**

Everyone (After dropping Cassidy at the dorms) was contemplating the loss of Lyoko, Franz Hopper, and William. "We have no other way to fight XANA now. The entire world is in danger," Jeremie told them.

"It's possible to even imagine it!" Ulrich sounded grief-stricken.

"And William…to think he's…" Yumi sounded grim.

Odd put his head in his hands. "This is horrible."

"I was really hoping I would see my father again." Aelita held a picture of her father to her face. With Lyoko out of the way, the only thing she could do was see her father's face in pictures.

"I'm sorry," Jeremie sounded grim. "I did everything I could."

Aelita set the picture down. "I know you did, Jeremie."

Then the laptop beeped, alerting everyone to the sound. Jeremie opened up his laptop. "Hey—what the—this is incredible."

"Well tell us. What's going on?" Odd asked.

"I've just received a coded message, a message directly from the internet and it's signed..." Jeremie looked at it.

"Who? Tell us, Jeremie!" Aelita sounded a bit desperate.

"Franz Hopper. Like Cassidy said," Jeremie sounded serious.

Ulrich and Odd gasped.

Aelita showed a sad look.


	42. Cassidy hits into shock week

**I don't own Code Lyoko and I do own Cassidy.**

**-In Cassidy and Aelita's dorm-**

Cassidy awoke the next morning to the feeling of dread and a hint of remorse. _Ugh, why did I freeze up in Sector 5?_ Memory came flooding back to her. _Right, William. He k-kissed me?_

She was about to sit up when the door opened to reveal some shocked and some grief-stricken faces.

She sighed. "William…he…did it didn't he?"

Yumi came up to sit beside her. "No one really blames you, Cassidy."

"Figures, my ex just turns up on Lyoko and then I freeze before I see the Schyphozoa take him in to go to XANA's side."

"What happened between you and him that made you freeze up so badly?" Odd had a soda in his hand.

Just then, Cassidy's words stopped. She couldn't speak the way she wanted to. Trying to get the words out was harder than she figured.

Jeremie spotted her writing book, something that she had always carried if in case she needed to continue a story she was writing, and handed it to her. "Here, write on this."

Instead of trying to force the words out, she took it, grabbed a pen from the table she shared with Aelita, and wrote out everything that happened in Sector 5, including her thoughts and feelings.

It took at least a page and the backside, but she managed to tear it off and handed it off to Odd.

He read it and when he got to a part (drinking his soda), he did a spit-take on the page and shouted, "WILLIAM AND YOU KISSED IN SECTOR 5?**!**"

Cassidy wrote down her answer and gave the page to him again. It only read: _Yes_.

"HOLY MACKEREL!" Odd shouted.

Ulrich was scratching inside his ear because of Odd's loud yelling. "Do you have to screech news to the whole world?"

"Why the heck did you freeze? It was just a kiss!" Odd got to his ex girlfriend.

Cassidy shifted her eyes to the wall. She didn't feel like answering.

Aelita put a hand to her shoulder. "It's okay if you don't want to answer. We'll go to breakfast and to classes."

"We'll cover for you!" Odd said.

Cassidy's heart felt frozen in shock. All she felt like doing was going to sleep.

"See ya later, Cassidy. We'll come by to check up on you after P.E," Jeremie promised.

Cassidy was already staring at the wall, Elex in her hand. _Why couldn't it have been someone ELSE on Lyoko instead of me that William went out with?_

Monday and Tuesday went by and Cassidy still wasn't back in classes. When mealtimes came, her friends would save a tray for her, bring it to her room, have her eat it, and whatever she didn't eat, she would hand off to Odd.

That satisfied the ninja warrior like no other.

When she didn't eat her desert at lunchtime Monday, Odd dove into the cake easily.

She still wasn't over the shock. By Wednesday, Principal Delmas and Jim were growing concerned.

They went up to check and asked her what was wrong. Cassidy gave them a fake story of how William fell on her in the forest and accidentally kissed her without her knowhow. It only took her a half-second to realize what he did.

Jim and Delmas left her alone after that.

On that Wednesday, Aelita grew more and more concerned. "She doesn't seem to move from her room except for a shower."

"Since you're her roommate," Odd declared, "I'd say you go ahead and see what Yolanda has for this."

She stood up from the table. "Okay. I'm off!"

"Good luck, Aelita," Jeremie called as she ran off.

"Thanks!"

When she got to the office, the nurse took concern. "Aelita, what is it?"

"My roommate is a bit shocked. Her ex kissed her and I think she is confused."

"Let me see to her," Yolanda said.

**-Back in Cassidy's room-**

*Knock, knock*

"Yes. Come in," Cassidy sounded not her usual self.

The door opened to reveal…

"Yolanda! What's going…?"

"A friend is getting very concerned. Are you feeling all right?"

Cassidy shifted eyes over to the window. "I'm feeling very confused!"

"Was it your ex?"

She nodded and recited the same story that she told Jim and Mr. Delmas. "…And now I'm very much confused."

"I see. Don't worry; I've seen cases that were a lot worse than yours, Cassidy. One student was so shocked about her ex she spent the whole school year in the hospital. We had to send her home. Your case is almost toward moderate but still a little mild," Yolanda smiled.

The psychic girl cocked a brow at the nurse. "Really?"

"What's more, I know just what to do!"

"It's not anything to make me feel a little grossed out, is it?"

"No. I'm advising you to sleep off this day and the next two after that," Yolanda nodded, her blonde hair shining in the half-light.

"What if by Thursday, I don't want to sleep anymore?" She asked.

"I know this great tea recipe my grandma taught me how to make. It'll help you sleep through three days in no time. Would you be willing to try it?" **(A/N: Now I know that Yolanda probably wouldn't do this. It just has to happen or not at all.)**

Cassidy thought hard on it. _Miss three days of school, get over the shock of William. Do not miss it, and the shock could get worse._ "What do I have to lose?"

"I warn you though. You won't wake until Saturday. Just make sure you've gotten everything out of your system before you drink the tea."

"I went a few minutes ago."

Yolanda understood and went to make the tea. When she returned with the cup of tea, Cassidy was ready.

"I will tell your friends and teachers about this after you drank the tea. Remember, you won't wake until Saturday," she warned.

"I'm ready to get rid of this confusion," Cassidy had a serious look on her face.

Bringing the cup to her lips, she drank the drink. Already the drink was starting to take effect. She started to feel tired, collapsing on her pillow. Before she shut her eyes, she handed the cup (surprisingly she managed to keep it upright despite the sudden collapse) back to Yolanda.

"Get some rest now, Cassidy…" Her words managed to penetrate her hearing for only a short while.

When Yolanda came out, Aelita was there. "Will she be okay?"

"She's doing much better. She's asleep right now. She will be for three days. On Saturday, she'll wake and feel better, I promise," Yolanda replied.

"Are you sure she'll sleep through that amount of time?"

She smiled at Cassidy's roommate's concern. "She will. My grandma's tea recipe can make anyone sleep for any amount of time."

Soon the news spread to teachers and to Aelita's friends. The gang agreed that it was for the best.

**-Three days later…on a Saturday at five o'clock in the morning-**

Cassidy's eyes blinked open to the sight of some blurred vision. Someone probably removed her glasses.

After the effects unlocked her nerves and her movement, she saw fit to grab her specs. _Is it Saturday today?_

Putting them on, she realized that Aelita was still asleep. _I better try not to wake her. She seems to be dreaming happily…I hope._

Getting up she noticed that she felt a little weak from hunger. _It was for the best,_ she thought.

Cassidy breathed softly. _I better get a shower in so I don't have to face a huge line._

She gathered her supplies and went to take a shower. The water's spray was so warm in the darkness. Her muscles loved it, but the cut on her back was a force to be reckoned with. It still stung but at least it was healing.

After she was done and dressed, Cassidy went back to her and Aelita's dorm.

Feeling she didn't have anything else to do, she laid back down on her bed. _I feel better. I don't feel confused anymore._

Seven o'clock in the morning, Aelita woke up. Turning her head to the side, she saw Cassidy turn her head to her and smile. "Good morning, Aelita."

"How do you feel?" she smiled.

"A bit hungry, but I didn't want to go down too early. Besides, the cafeteria isn't open at five." Cassidy's stomach growled as if a lion came into her and roared.

The pink-haired girl was surprised. "How long have you been up?"

"About two hours?"

"Well, I'm going to take a shower. You better get one too for sleeping that long," Aelita smiled.

"No, it's okay. I got one while you were sleeping. I didn't want to wake you up, so I stayed silent getting my supplies ready," Cassidy nodded. "You go on ahead. I'll go down to breakfast. I'm starving from the sounds of my stomach."

"Okay, I'm off. I'll see you at breakfast." Her roommate walked out the door.

Getting up, she calmly made her way to the cafeteria. Her walk was a little unsteady but she managed her way as steadily as she could.

Easing into the cafeteria, she grabbed her tray. _Let's see, omelets were Thursday and…oh heck with it, I'll just ask Rosa._

"Rosa, what food is it today?" she asked.

"Yesterday was oatmeal, so today is pancakes!" Rosa smiled.

"I'll take a stack!" Cassidy instantly agreed.

"You've the stomach of your Della Robbia friend." The cafeteria worker laid the pancakes on the tray.

"Well, I have been asleep for three days. Hunger is bound to show up in the equation somewhere," She smiled to her as she walked away.

Sissi saw her. "So…sleeping beauty has finally woken and joined us."

"And ran into the Warty Witch!" Cassidy smarted.

The principal's daughter scowled. "I do not have warts!"

"Yeah, but you're acting like one."

The raven-haired girl stormed out.

As she sat down to eat, the door flew open, making her jump. _I'm hungry,_ were the shrill thoughts.

_Of course, Odd and his stomach,_ she smiled as she cut into her food.

Odd Della Robbia was rushing to get his portion when he stopped. He saw a familiar face sitting at the usual table. "No way! That's Cassidy!"

"Yep. She came up asking today's breakfast item. I gave her a stack of pancakes," Rosa explained.

"Maybe if she goes for seconds, you should…" He whispered his idea into the worker's ear.

After the whispering was done, Rosa agreed.

Odd went over to his friend. "So, you've finally decided to come down, huh, Cassidy."

Cassidy looked up from her finished plate. "Huh? Yeah."

"At least you woke up. We were worried about you."

She nodded and smiled. "Well, tengo hambre. I better get another portion."

"You're growing to be just like me, Cat-Lover-Girl," he teased.

She cocked a brow. "Look who's talking."

"Touché."

She went up to get more chocolate chip pancakes when Rosa added a few more to her stack. "Uh…thanks Rosa. Are you sure I should have that?"

"You said that hunger is bound to show up somewhere. So go ahead." Rosa smiled at her the way that she did Aelita the first time she had lunch.

"Aw, thanks, Rosa."

She went back to her table. Odd faked a look of surprise. "Wow! What a good stack of pancakes!"

She didn't detect any faking. Smiling she said, "Yeah, seems that Rosa noticed my hunger level today."

Digging in, she noticed that Odd wasn't pining for her portion as always. "Is something wrong, Odd?" She asked after her mouth was cleared.

"Nope."

"Strange. You usually like to ask me for my portion at every second. Are you enfermo, Odd?"

"No."

Shrugging, she dug into her pancakes again.

Aelita, Jeremie, and Ulrich joined soon after. The other two boys were very pleased to see their friend chow down after three days of sleep.

"So, I see Odd's stomach rubbed off on you," Ulrich cracked.

"I guess it did. Plus I was out for three days," Cassidy shrugged, on the fourth-to-last pancake.

"That's right. And during that time, you didn't move from the spot in your bed," Aelita noted.

"She didn't even adjust her position?" Jeremie asked, out of concern.

She shook her head. "Stayed perfectly still. Not a flinch."

The other girl however was enjoying her extra pancakes. Apparently she was very hungry.

Odd laughed. "You know how to eat, Cassidy."

She looked up from her second to last pancake. "Hey, I learned from you!" she teased back. Then Cassidy turned to Ulrich. "I owe you next week."

"How come?" Aelita asked, confused.

"He made a bet that I would freeze in Sector 5 before anything bad happened. I sweetened the deal by adding in the Core Zone. So I froze; something bad happened after that, and Ulrich won!" Cassidy nodded. "Congratulations."

"Yeah but I can't think of anything at the moment for you to do except eat like Odd," Ulrich smiled.

"I really need the strength because my walk was awkward this morning."

All of a sudden, Yumi came in. "Oh, what a pest my brother is!" she growled.

"Hermano troubles again, Yumi?" Cassidy asked.

"Yeah…" Then the Japanese teen realized that her friend was awake. "I'm glad you are awake, Cassidy!"

"Me too," then her stomach growled. "Oh my, thirds already, stomach?"

"You had _seconds_?" Yumi quirked a brow with a smile.

"I was hungry!" Cassidy fake defended.

"Go ahead. You know I won't stop you," her friend chuckled a little.

She went up to get her third stack, her gait now getting settled again.

"With that treatment Yolanda gave her, it's no wonder she's hungrier than usual." Ulrich smiled.

After she got settled in a third time, Johnny passed by. "Hi Cassidy!"

"Hey, Johnny," she smiled.

After he was gone, Jeremie started to get an idea. "Do you want to help Aelita and I get Lyoko back online and find William Sunday?"

"Sure. But first, may I?" She indicated her not-even-started-on pancake pile.

"Do as you wish." Jeremie nodded.

Lunch passed by and Cassidy was now gaining her strength. She was packing away more food than Odd did on any other day.

"Slow down, Cassidy. You'll be like Nicholas in this room," Ulrich cracked.

"Don't insult my ex, huh. Her manners are thirty times better than him," Odd smiled.

The psychic girl smiled as she finally got done with lunch (she went and had fourths).

Dinner came around and she chewed through that like it was no big deal.

"Goodness gracious, Cassidy," Jeremie took a little concern. "Just because you're hungry doesn't mean every meal's your last."

The girl gave a sheepish grin. "Sorry."

That night, Cassidy fell into a natural sleep for the first time since waking up. _Thank goodness the shock is over. Now all I need to do is regain my strength and help find William and rebuild Lyoko._


	43. William has returnedand changed

**Well, William's going to return…I think.**

**I don't own Code Lyoko. Cassidy is mine.**

**-In the Principal's office-**

"I can't hear you very well, Mr. Dunbar. Are you trying to say that your son William has gone overseas to stay with you, and he won't be attending classes here until you bring him home?" Mr. Delmas asked to the person on the other end.

**-Let's see who's on the other end, shall we?-**

"Yes, that's correct, sir," Jeremie spoke. Cassidy tried to contain her almost-dead giggles.

The three had been working at the lab for at least a week.

**-Back at the office-**

"I see, but it's quite surprising that he would leave without even bothering to tell any of us here."

"_Uh…"_ said a deeper voice, unlike Jeremie's own.

**-Lab with Jeremie using his voice synthesizer-**

"…it was a very sudden decision. You know how youngsters can be at this age…"

**-Back to Delmas-**

"…_I'm sure your own daughter Sissi is capable of doing the same thing!"_

Delmas's eyes shot toward a photo of his daughter. "That's very possible, yes." Then he realized something. "But I didn't realize that you knew my daughter…and by her nickname, as well."

**-Back to Jeremie, Aelita, and Cassidy-**

Jeremie scratched the back of his head. Cassidy held her breath. "That is…well, actually, I don't know her obviously but, well…you see, William talks so much…"

**-Back to Delmas-**

"…_about her. It's always Sissi this…"_

**-Jeremie-**

"…and Sissi that, and so it's almost as if I really _did_ know her."

Aelita watched as Jeremie tried to convey the message. Cassidy's legs shook a little from standing for so long.

**-Delmas-**

"Ah…I didn't know that William was such a close friend of Elizabeth."

**-Back to Jeremie-**

"Well, Sissi's a role model for William—an example, and how could it be otherwise. I mean considering the sort of father that she has," Jeremie went on and on.

**-Delmas-**

"Thank you, Mr. Dunbar. I was delighted to have this little chat with you, and please give William my best regards and we hope he'll return to school very soon, and that he'll always be welcome," Delmas wanted to hang up.

**-Jeremie-**

"We'll tell him. Good-bye, Mr. Delmas, and many thanks for your understanding," Jeremie smiled.

**-Delmas-**

"You're very welcome, sir!" Delmas hung up the phone.

**-Jeremie-**

Jeremie pressed a key. Cassidy smiled.

"Whew, I guess I make a good grown-up," He removed the communicator from his ear.

The psychic girl nodded.

"Yes, but now all we have to do is find William," Aelita pointed out.

Jeremie leaned forward to get to the keys. "You're right. We all better get back to work."

Cassidy yawned a little and stretched. "We'll be able to bring back Sector 5 tomorrow."

**-The next day-**

"Piece of cake," Jeremie announced to his friends.

Yumi wasn't too sure on this. "Okay, so it worked with the principal, but what will happen when William's real parents want to see their son?"

"Yumi's right, and I'm not so sure that voice synthesizer of yours is going to do the trick, Jeremie," Ulrich agreed.

Cassidy slanted a brow. "Will you give him a break? So far, William's parents haven't asked once about their son."

"Who knows? Maybe by then we'll have localized William," Jeremie had his glasses up like shades on his forehead.

Odd was curious. "How are you going to do that?"

"Thanks to the data we got from my father before he disappeared into the network, Jeremie, Cassidy, and I have just about recreated Lyoko," Aelita smiled.

"You're recreating Lyoko?" Odd was surprised.

"We may even be ready by tonight."

Jeremie smiled too. "That's right. In fact, Aelita, Cassidy, and I have worked on it every night for the last week." He put his glasses back where they belonged.

"Oh, so that's why you three looked like a couple of zombies. And I thought that you looked like wrecks because you were partying all night. I was getting jealous," Odd smiled.

Cassidy fought the urge to Gibbs-slap him with a smile.

**-In the cafeteria-**

Milly was chewing on an apple while Tamiya drank her water. "Hi, Milly, hi Tamiya. You wouldn't mind if we sat here with you, would ya?" Yumi asked.

The two got up and went their separate ways.

Everyone noticed, even Jeremie seemed a bit guilty. Cassidy looked to him with a look of sympathy. "It was to save Lyoko, Jeremie," she whispered as she put a hand on his shoulder.

They sat down at the now-empty table. "They're still sulking?" Ulrich asked.

"What do you think?" Jeremie asked.

"Well, you did sneak out the bathroom window during an interview," Odd sat down. "And for ace reporters like them, that was pretty insulting."

"Being mad at me isn't as bad as they're being really mad at each other," Jeremie took the tab off the can of soda.

"But how come?" Ulrich asked.

"They had a massive argument over the newspaper, I think."

"You mean the Kadic News is folded for good? That's the best news I've heard in a—" Yumi was interrupted by Odd elbowing her.

"No! It's not! How am I gonna find out who's going out with who, now?"

"And what great knitting patterns are yet to be there, too?" Cassidy sounded a bit bushed. "I guess I'll just look in the knitting books again."

"That might be good. Psychic or not you are our best friend," Ulrich said. "And I think that…"

Sissi overheard that.

Hervé and Nicholas were just talking about something.

"Well, personally, out of all the seasons of the year, I like spring most of all."

Nicholas gave his favorite. "I like the summer best because it's nice and warm."

Sissi couldn't hear the perfect plan to get revenge on Cassidy for when she caught her trying to record Jeremie and Aelita's conversation. "Quiet, huh, I can't hear anything."

Hervé was a bit annoyed. "Well, if you can't hear anything, then we should speak louder, shouldn't we?"

"Dork, it's not you I want to listen to."

**-Back to the gang's table-**

Cassidy shushed Ulrich. "I think that's on the too much info list. You know we can't say that I've got powers in public."

"Soon it won't matter anymore!" He shrugged.

"Ulrich, SHUSH! If that info gets to You-Know-Who from You-Know-Where, He would be able to use me in all the evilest ways possible," the psychic girl nodded.

"Is evilest even a word?" Odd asked.

**-Sissi's-**

"I don't see what makes their conversation more interesting than ours," Hervé told her.

Nicholas took the straw out of his mouth. "Yeah, me neither."

Sissi had a sinister smile on her face. "Well, I do, okay?"

**-Sissi's room-**

*Knock, knock, knock*

"Come in," Sissi said.

Milly opened the door. "You wanted to see me, huh, Sissi?" After the affirmative, she then spotted Tamiya. Winking an eye, suspicion crossed her path. "Hey, what's she doing here?"

Tamiya winked an eye too. "That's what I was going to say. What's she doing here?"

"I thought it was me you wanted to see."

"Same here!"

Sissi walked through the space in between the girls. "Well at least you agree on that." She shut the door, keeping the two inside. "It's not much, but it's a start." She pulled the two disagreeing girls closer to each other. "And it's all thanks to me." Patting the girls' shoulders she walked through the space in between Milly and Tamiya again. "Which is why for the good of the Kadic News, I've decided to become the editor-in-chief!"

That shocked the two of them. "You've decided WHAT?**!**" Milly was appalled.

"Who do you think you are?" Tamiya showed suspicion. Something wasn't right.

"A daughter of the principal, the only person that can stop you from printing that poor excuse of a paper that you're so proud of," Sissi was manipulative as she was crafty.

"But you're not a real journalist!" Milly protested.

"She's right; you don't even know the meaning of the word scoop," Tamiya said.

Sissi leaned on her closet. "Wrong again, little ones. A scoop, huh? How about an enormous scoop?"

The two reporters looked to each other with suspicion in their eyes.

**-At the factory at night in the lab-**

Jeremie looked to the others. "I'm all set."

Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, Aelita, and Cassidy nodded.

He pressed a key. "Here we go."

The rebuilding process was on the screen in no time. It was going kind of slow.

Even Odd noticed the slow-going processes. "I don't want to be a party pooper but there doesn't seem to be much happening."

Cassidy smiled a little. "Patience is a virtue, Odd. Never waste it."

Smiles didn't appear on Jeremie or Aelita's faces however.

"The data my father transmitted wasn't enough," Aelita sounded a bit downhearted.

Jeremie took off his glasses. "I guess he must've been really crazy to think that we could recreate Lyoko."

"Don't sound like that," Cassidy yawned.

Yumi noticed something. "Hey, wait! Look at that." She pointed on something on the center main screen.

Indeed a sphere was there.

**-Back to Lyoko for the first time in ever-**

A hub was being built.

**-Back at the lab-**

Ulrich was impressed. "That's incredible! It worked."

"Aelita, Jeremie, Cassidy, you three are gods!" Odd smiled.

"Aw, please. I ain't a god!" the psychic girl used her almost-correct Southern accent.

Aelita showed a prideful smile.

"Almost, but not quite." The pink-haired girl's smile dampened just a hair as the genius pressed a key. On the Holomap was the sphere of Sector 5. "For the time being, all we've been able to recreate Sector 5 of Lyoko. We still gotta work to create the other sectors, but we should be able to do that soon." Jeremie adjusted his glasses.

Yumi spun the chair around. "Okay, but it can wait a night or two. You guys deserve a goodnight's sleep."

Aelita and Cassidy agreed. "Yes, Yumi's right, Jeremie," the former said. "We're going to be needing every bit of our strength to look for William."

"And I haven't slept in a week," Cassidy yawned.

"We'll get started tomorrow."

Jeremie yawned a bit. "Yeah, well, alright."

**-On the bridge-**

Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, Jeremie, Aelita, and Cassidy walked back to the dorms.

"Hey, do you think I should take some dancing lessons for my next film?" Odd asked. "At one point, the hero is challenged to a disco dancing duel."

**-Back to the factory-**

**Some data turned red.**

**-In the scanner room-**

A scanner door opened. There was a lot of smoke.

**-The next morning with Ulrich-**

Ulrich just finished getting dressed when his door opened. In the door way was a worried and agitated Cassidy. "Look what we have here!" She snarled, throwing a book face down on his bed.

"A book?" Still dazed from sleep, he was very confused.

She turned the book face up. "Look at the front page! Look at it!"

"Cassidy Rene' McGuire: Psychic, or normal student?" Ulrich read the headline.

"I told you to hush, but did you ever listen? 'Soon it wouldn't matter anymore', huh? The wager's off, now!"

Ulrich gulped. When she was angry within reason, she had something in mind for revenge.

**-Later on in the courtyard-**

Ulrich threw the newspaper on the bench in between Milly and Tamiya. "Do you have any good idea what Cassidy's going to do to me for this?"

Sissi flipped a page of her magazine. "No, but I can't wait to find out! And I'm sure that my readers are dying to know too."

The rest of the gang, with a hungry-for-revenge Cassidy, came in.

"Sissi, since when have you been involved with the Kadic News, huh?" Jeremie asked, laptop on his back.

"Ever since I made myself editor-in-chief. Oh, and since you're all together as usual, I'd like to ask Yumi and Cassidy a few questions for the next issue!"

Cassidy scowled. Today was not the day for her to have an interview.

Sissi looked to the two reporters. "What are you two waiting for? Come on! We're rolling!" Her tone went softer. "Well, Yumi, Cassidy, our readers would really like to know how you two and William are getting along?"

"That's _none of your business_, Sissi, so _back off_!" Cassidy growled.

Sissi took it calmly.

"W-William? Me and William?" Yumi was a bit incredulous. "You should ask his ex."

_Oh, sure, land the plate on me just as soon as I tell Trouble with a Capital S here to BACK the HECK OFF!_

"Would you rather I ask the same question to William? He might not be as shy or as angry as you two are," Sissi smirked. "As a matter of fact, where is he? The last time I saw him was two weeks ago."

"He's gone abroad. His father called your father to tell him," Ulrich said.

"Ulrich, you don't know that! William didn't tell anyone about him going abroad," Cassidy tried to cover.

"Oh and how did you know that, huh?" Sissi asked the two.

The samurai warrior stuttered. "Uh…I uh…"

A new voice hit the sound waves. "Are you talking about me?"

The camera focused on…William!

**-Later on-**

"All I can remember is being virtualized on Lyoko and getting captured by the Schyphozoa." William did the knocking the head gesture. "It's a blank after that. That is until this morning when I woke up in the factory."

Odd wasn't too sure, neither was Cassidy. Cassidy poked his shoulder lightly while Odd pinched his arm.

"Hey, what are you doing, you two? You're hurting me," William asked.

_Something's not right. XANA's up to this, I'm sure!_ Cassidy's suspicions deepened.

"Just checking to make sure that you're not one of XANA's ghosts," Odd smiled and covered for his friend.

"No danger of that. There isn't any activated tower on Lyoko," Jeremie was on his laptop. "William couldn't have been sent by XANA."

William ruffled Odd's hair. "So you can stop pinching me, Odd." Then he tickled Cassidy's back. "And you can stop poking me, Cassidy." He accidentally touched the healing place of Cassidy's cut.

That almost set Cassidy off. Clenching a fist, she looked as if she would hit him, but, remembering that she's a pacifist, she clenched her teeth instead and unclenched that fist. "William, that was my cut," she tried to keep calm.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he backed off.

The bell rang.

"Anyhow, you're just in time for a quiz in math," Yumi winked an eye.

William sounded a bit sad. "Timing huh? I haven't studied at all."

"So? Since when have you _ever_ studied?" Yumi smiled.

The two then chased each other to math class.

"The next problem is explaining William's sudden return to Delmas," Odd straightened his hair.

"Yeah, you said it," Jeremie agreed. "What I don't get is why, when Lyoko disappeared, William didn't fall into the digital sea." He put his laptop back into his bag. "It's really weird. I'd love to know how he managed to escape."

"Something tells me XANA is up to this," Cassidy inputted.

**-That night-**

*Knock, knock, knock*

Aelita and Cassidy were enjoying a calm evening in their dorm rooms when they heard the knocking.

"Who is it?" Aelita looked up from her book.

Sissi, Milly, and Tamiya came in. "Hi, Aelita, Cassidy, we're not disturbing you, I hope," the former said. "We would really like to do a feature story for our next issue."

Cassidy growled as she accidentally slipped a stitch in her knitting. "Oh…The pattern doesn't even call for a slipped stitch."

"What are you knitting there, Cassidy, huh?" Sissi turned to her first.

"It was a knit dish cloth with a simple ridge. It didn't even call for a slipped stitch!" She was about ready to yell at Sissi when the other girl turned to Aelita.

_I want to kick her butt_ so_ much, but I know that I'm nonviolent on Earth except in some situations._

"It's true we don't know a lot about you. Are you really Odd's cousin? And, well, is it really all that cold in Canada? Were you really all alone a lot? And why did you suddenly come here in the middle of the year? Our readers would like to know," Sissi bombarded.

The psychic was seething so much that if looks could make flames appear, Cassidy's knitting needle tips would catch fire.

Milly and Tamiya showed uneasy looks.

Sissi then turned to the other girl. "Are you really from the U.S.A.? If so, how did you come here?"

"Can't you let them study and knit in peace, huh?" William was standing in the door way.

_A blessing_ and_ a curse at the same time. Huh, I've probably experienced worse,_ Cassidy shrugged but then… _Wait a second. Oh, my, GOD! XANA…and Aelita…oh, holy crap!_ She gulped. _Franz Hopper, too…HOLY HELL! THIS IS BAD!_

"Alright, get going, all three of you," William gestured outside their room. "You annoyed them enough!"

"Oh, William, you came back! I thought you were overseas," Sissi was surprised.

"Get going, I said," He insisted.

The principal's daughter led the way out. "Okay, okay, we're outta here!"

Milly and Tamiya smiled as they walked out.

Cassidy wasn't too sure of William's behavior, so she sat in the chair nearest Aelita's computer.

"Thanks, William. Without you, we would've been Sissi's next victim, and that's even worse than…" Aelita flipped a page.

The psychic's stomach whirled in fear and she swallowed a big lump in her throat. _Uh-oh!_

"…than becoming a prisoner of XANA, is that you're saying?"

Aelita saw the sign in his eyes.

Cassidy snapped. She jumped up and stood in a defensive position. "XANA, if you want Aelita, then you have to go through me to get her!"

William smirked, making the defending girl's stomach whirl again. "Don't worry, Cassidy, I've got a special seat for you!"

She jumped and kicked him in the face. "Aelita, corre! ¡CORRE!"

The XANAfied boy recovered and the psychic revved to drive a punch in William's stomach. He caught her fist. "NO!" She sweated buckets. Turning to Aelita again, she yelled, "Aelita, get to Odd and Ulrich's room. Tell them what happened—AGGHH!" An electric shock went through her arm. "HURRY! CORRE!" Another shock went into her arm. Fighting to stay conscious, she revved up using her remaining strength and tried to punch him again. "No, William, you won't get her. I won't let you throw her into the digital sea, ya hear!"

William grabbed the other fist. Her eyes widened. "NO!" Her jaw went slack. Looking up through her shock, she saw William grin evilly.

Aelita watched in horror.

The other girl's legs were locked in the stance. She couldn't break out of it.

She gulped.

"You're mine now!" William's voice took an undertone.

Cassidy squeaked.

Heart thudding fast, she squeezed her eyes shut, preparing for the electricity to knock her out. She was trapped.

The deed was done.

After Cassidy fell to the floor, he then turned his attention to Aelita.

**-With Sissi, Milly, and Tamiya-**

"William only came back because of Cassidy and Aelita. That's a scoop, isn't it," Sissi asked the two.

"No!" Milly disagreed.

"I can't wait to show the news to Jeremie and see what he has to say," Sissi led the way.

"Now, hold on," Tamiya warned.

"There's no reason for him to know before our readers do," Milly said.

"Once we printed it, then we'll ask Jeremie what he thinks of it."

**-Sissi obviously disagreed-**

Jeremie was shocked. "William came into Aelita and Cassidy's room? You're kidding! Are you sure he did?"

"We sure are. We were there. What do you think?" Sissi asked.

"I think that…uh…I know why! They're going to help him catch up on, um…what he missed in math!"

That confused the three girls.

"Look, I'm sorry, but uh…I gotta go now and take a shower." Jeremie walked off.

It was then that Milly put her foot down. "Sissi, do you want a scoop?"

"Hm…?" Sissi turned around.

"A real one this time?"

Sissi was confused.

"Okay, I quit!"

"So do I, Sissi!" Tamiya agreed.

"But you couldn't possibly do that!" Sissi was shocked.

The two girls were friends again. "Wanna bet?"

**-Jeremie on the other hand-**

He opened the door to Aelita and Cassidy's room. It looked as if the two girls never were there.

**-With Ulrich…OH you are going to enjoy **_**this**_**-**

Ulrich growled. "Losing a bet is one thing! _This_ takes it too far."

He was in Cassidy's clothing, courtesy of the girl's revenge trick.

His phone rang. "Yeah, Jeremie?"

**-Back where Jeremie is-**

Jeremie typed on Aelita's computer. "Ulrich, there's something weird going on with William."

"_Why, what's wrong?"_ Ulrich asked.

"He left for the factory with Aelita and Cassidy," Jeremie found their phone signals. "I picked up the signals of their cell phones. I'm pretty sure, like Cassidy said, this is XANA's doing."

"_What makes you think that?"_

"Just a hunch!" He looked at the screen again.

**-Ulrich-**

"_It's strange that he managed to escape the digital sea. Meet you at the factory, okay?"_

"Right. No problem. You get Yumi, I'll clue Odd in."

"_You mean he's not with you?"_ Jeremie asked.

"Odd? He went for his lesson for his film."

**-Odd-**

"Go on, keep trying. I'm sure that you can do a lot better than that," Jim encouraged.

Odd practiced in his day clothes. He was sure to make the film's moves realistic.

"That's very good, Della Robbia. You sure got the disco down now," he smiled.

"It is for the film, Jim. Plus I don't want to end up dancing wrongly now," Odd smiled as he panted.

"There's more to disco than the John Travolta finger," Jim said. "I remember when I was acting for Paco the King of Disco."

"I didn't know that you were an actor," Odd smiled.

"Yeah, but I'd rather not talk about it."

**-With Yumi's place-**

Yumi was reading one of Cassidy's books. "Cassidy is right. Fang and Max should be together."

Then her phone rang. "Oh, no. Just when I was trying to chill out!"

Seeing the message, she knew it was a bad sign.

**-With William, Cassidy, and Aelita-**

William was typing on the keys with his superfast typing (granted by XANA).

Aelita and Cassidy were both unconscious in the elevator, but one of them started to stir. A pair of brown eyes found themselves focusing.

Cassidy struggled to her feet, but felt them wobble.

_I won't allow William to—throw Aelita into the digital sea. NEVER!_

Her chest felt like it was full of lead.

The psychic girl wobbled forward. "No…" she panted. "William. Ya can't…do this…"

That alerted him.

Regaining her strength, she tried for a defensive stance. She was gasping for breath to keep herself moving.

William gave her a look that obviously said "What the crap" in a bored way.

Pressing the enter key, he zapped her to full unconsciousness into the elevator.

He walked into the car and turned around, the symbol in his eyes.

**-Back to the conquering cavalry on the bridge-**

"Impossible to reach Odd! I already tried three times," Ulrich checked his phone.

"Yeah, I bet he's living it up somewhere, just when we need him!" Jeremie said.

**-To the scanner room-**

Cassidy and Aelita were each in a scanner, still unconscious, while William was standing in the center scanner, awake and XANA sign in his eyes.

The doors closed.

**-In Sector 5-**

The two girls were still unconscious as they hit the floor of the arena.

William stood before them in his black and red costume. He charged up a black smoke and fired. It split, encompassed Cassidy and Aelita, and lifted them up. He moved them with his mind into the corridor.

**-Back in the lab-**

Jeremie made his way to his chair as Ulrich looked around the lab.

"They're not here," the now-dressed-like-Cassidy samurai warrior said.

"I can see that. They're all in Sector 5, and I don't like that at all." The genius of the group looked to his friend. "Hurry, Ulrich. Head for the scanner room."

He nodded. "I'm on my way." The warrior ran uncomfortably to the elevator.

Jeremie entered Odd's cell phone number. "I keep trying to reach Odd. We're really going to be needing him."

**-Odd-**

Odd was dancing up a sweat for his film. Little did he know that Aelita and Cassidy were in danger, and that Jeremie was calling him.

Jim stopped the music. "Not bad. Just a few more steps and you'll have it made for your film."

He nodded. "That's great, Jim."

**-Back to Jeremie-**

"Oh, no. Where could Odd be, I wonder?" Jeremie asked.

"_I'm ready, Jeremie."_

He leaned forward to type. "Okay. I'll launch the procedure. Transfer, Ulrich. Scanner, Ulrich. Virtualization."

**-In the Arena-**

Ulrich landed in the arena. _"Ulrich, you've got to take the corridor right in front of you."_

"Is there a key I gotta trip?"

"_No, when we recreated Sector 5 we got rid of that procedure."_

"Okay, here I go!"

"_Better step on it!"_ Jeremie warned. _"While the three are not too far away, Ulrich. Once you're in the Core Zone, I'll guide you."_

Ulrich ran, ready to find and save the two girls.

**-With the two girls-**

William had levitated them into the next room of the Core Zone.

Now Aelita started to stir. "Where am I?"

Cassidy woke. Looking around, she gasped. "We're in Sector 5."

Aelita looked to William. "What's going on?"

The boy kept mind-nudging them into his direction.

"William, where are you taking us?"

"Into trouble!" Cassidy tried to break the restraint.

"Let us go!" Aelita ordered.

He tried to knock them out again, but Aelita and Cassidy both broke free.

"ENERGY FIELD!" Aelita shot her field into him first.

That field blasted him dead center.

Cassidy shot a silver bullet but missed. By then the two found it wise to run.

After running into a corridor, Cassidy popped the question, "Why in hell am I a victim to XANA? I don't have any family relations here!"

**-Back to William and…-**

William recovered and got up. The two girls were getting away.

"So, having fun without inviting us?" Ulrich's voice surprised him. "You sure have changed, haven't you?"

He conjured his zabanto and chuckled darkly.

"_Be careful, Ulrich. XANA's sent some Creepers just behind you!"_

"**Super Smoke."** William reduced himself to smoke and went off into the general direction that Cassidy and Aelita took.

The two Creepers behind him shot. He deflected the shots. "And I thought this was going to be easy."

A third Creeper came and he had to deflect it from himself.

**-With Cassidy and Aelita-**

"_Aelita, Cassidy…"_

Cassidy was relieved. "Jeremie, man am I glad to hear your voice. Thank you, God!"

"…_can you two hear me?"_ Jeremie asked.

Aelita and Cassidy stopped for a half-second. "Jeremie, what's going on?" The former was very concerned.

"_Be very careful, girls. William's coming after you two."_

"I don't have relatives…_here_ on Lyoko! I don't know _why_ he's going after me," Cassidy protested as the two ran into the hallway.

"What's the matter with him?"

"One word: XANA!"

Jeremie came in with his answer. _"I have no idea. The tower in Sector 5 hasn't been activated, but it seems that William's under the control of XANA. You two better get out of there fast, Aelita and Cassidy."_

"We're trying to do just that," Cassidy panted.

They ran through more path when the psychic girl still took a gander. "Why me as well?" She scoffed a little. "I don't have any relation to you, Aelita. I swear."

"_I don't have a clue either. We'll have to scan you later."_

They took a right turn.

William still followed the two as if he was a smoky snake.

**-The Lab-**

The elevator opened to reveal…

"Yumi! At last," Jeremie exclaimed. "Head for the scanner room, fast! Ulrich, Aelita, and Cassidy really need your help."

Yumi pushed a button. "And Odd?"

Jeremie kept typing. "I've been trying to reach him. I don't know where he is."

The elevator doors closed.

**-Back to Odd-**

Odd was now closer to his phone. Jim stopped the music for a last time.

"You did great. I think your film will be great. Lesson over!" Jim was very impressed.

Odd nodded and checked his phone. There was a message.

SOS XANA

J

"Well what do ya know," he muttered.

There was no time. He ran to the park.

**-Back to Aelita and Cassidy-**

"William's still after us. We better keep running," Cassidy tried to stay in step with Aelita. She was just an inch faster than Aelita.

The two found themselves in a dead end. The two looked for alternate paths but found none.

The psychic girl looked to her friend in fear. "The lady killer is gonna get us now!"

As if on cue, William appeared. The two were trapped.

Aelita fired an energy field. "ENERGY FIELD!"

William dodged.

Cassidy fired a silver bullet to which he dodged too.

He proceeded to walk forward.

The girls walked backward into the hole in the wall. "Not what I wanted to do today." Cassidy tried firing again and again, but kept missing.

"_No, Aelita and Cassidy, No!"_

"No, William, listen to us!" Aelita tried to reason with him as she and the other girl walked forward.

He fired his smoke and blasted the two into unconsciousness again. He threw them in the (XANA put it) right direction and followed them to the Celestial Dome.

**-Back to Ulrich-**

"_Ulrich, better make it snappy. William's taking Aelita and Cassidy straight to the Dome area!"_

"I'm doing my best, Jeremie!" He ran back in an effort to defend himself. "Obviously, my best isn't good enough."

Then Yumi came in. "HII-YAH!" She threw her fan and got rid of a Creeper. "Looks like you could use a hand."

"That's right! Let's go!" Ulrich smiled. His girlfriend was with him.

Using the false "lady in peril" trick, Yumi was made aware that there was a Creeper staring down at her.

Ulrich slapped the monster with the side of his katana, gaining its attention and it shooting his katana out of his hand. He gathered his sword.

She hopped up in an instant. Throwing her fans, she succeeded in getting rid of another monster.

"On three, we attack. One…two…three!" the two ran off in different directions.

With a call of "IMPACT!" Ulrich slashed at the second-to-last Creeper.

Yumi spun around five times and threw her fan at the last one.

The two met up with each other and took the corridor in front of them. "Let's get outta here," Yumi said.

**-Lab-**

The elevator opened to reveal Odd! "I didn't get here too late I hope."

Jeremie was relieved. "Odd! It's about time. What were you doing, huh?"

"I was taking a disco dancing class."

"Right, now get to the scanner room. You're going to go on a little trip." The genius worked on the keys.

Odd pulled a move. "Funky!"

**-With the two captured girls-**

William transported the two to the Dome Area. He looked around. **"Manta!"** he called.

He was rewarded with his own black Manta. He flipped both Cassidy and Aelita around, then climbed on to gently put them on the monster.

The former girl started to slip when he used his smoke to act as a seatbelt.

He kept a foot on Aelita to keep her from doing the same.

Conjuring reins, William was able to control the Manta.

**-Lab-**

"What's he trying to do now?" Jeremie asked.

_Something horrible, Jeremie. Really, really, horrible,_ Cassidy's thoughts were very serious.

**-Elevator room-**

Yumi and Ulrich were on their way.

"What's going on, Jeremie?" Yumi stood by him.

"_It looks like William wants out of Sector 5."_

"But, I thought you hadn't managed to create any other sectors," Yumi protested.

**-Back to Jeremie-**

Jeremie was scratching and racking his brains. "That's what makes it so hard to understand. At the end of Sector 5 there's nothing, except…" Then he realized the answer. "The digital sea."

**-With Yumi and Ulrich-**

Yumi and Ulrich made it to the Dome.

"_If he jumps into it with Aelita and Cassidy, the two girls will be virtualized for good, just like Aelita's father. And we all know Cassidy will hate that."_

"Don't worry, Jeremie. We're going to do all we can to stop him," Ulrich reassured.

"But for that we're going to need our vehicles," Yumi looked up to the 'ceiling'.

"_Right, I'll see that you'll get them in…no time flat!"_ Jeremie almost sounded nervous.

The OverBike and OverWing came up in a snap.

The owners (Ulrich and Yumi) each hopped on to his or her vehicle.

**-Odd-**

Odd was doing his best to get to the Dome area. He was running his hardest.

**-Back to the soon-to-be fray-**

William was still in the lead.

Ulrich and Yumi tailed him.

That tailing angered both him and XANA. William ordered his Manta to drop its mines.

"_Better watch out. There are mines."_

Yumi and Ulrich found it wise to dodge. The former had no trouble dodging them. But one of them exploded underneath her vehicle, making her spin.

"Are you okay, Yumi!" Ulrich asked.

She stopped spinning. "No problem." She noticed something quickly. "Ulrich, in front of you!"

He was able to avoid a three mine explosion.

But one of them ambushed him. He devirtualized in an instant.

"ULRICH!" Yumi cried.

It was up to her now. She followed William, Cassidy, and Aelita into the tunnel.

It was bright orange out there as if the Desert Sector had been recreated.

Yumi kept following him.

**-Back to Odd-**

"_Move it, Odd. They just went into the tunnel."_

Odd was in the Dome Area and on his OverBoard in no time flat. "No problem, Einstein."

**-Back to the pursuit-**

Yumi was in hot pursuit of William and the other two girls.

Aelita and Cassidy woke up. They looked around. Aelita asked Cassidy, "What's going to happen?"

The other girl tried to break the restraint. "William is going to throw us into the digital sea."

"_Yumi, you have to stop William from jumping into the digital sea!"_ Jeremie told Yumi.

"I know, Jeremie, I'm on it." She dove down into the chase.

Aelita and Cassidy saw Yumi on the horizon. "YUMI!" Cassidy shrieked. "You gotta get outta here. William…he's gonna…throw you off the OverWing!"

As soon as the geisha warrior unfurled her fan, William conjured his sword. He threw a type of energy field at her. Yumi dodged but fell off at the mere gravity of it.

"_Yumi, NO!"_

"NO!**!**" Cassidy yelled.

"Yumi!" Aelita called.

Then…two laser arrows got Yumi on her shoulders.

William was surprised and looked up.

**-Jeremie-**

Jeremie fell back in his seat in relief.

**-Yumi-**

She almost passed out in her scanner but held strong.

**-The pursuit goes on-**

"Banzai!" Odd launched three laser arrows at the Manta.

It threw Aelita off, but not Cassidy.

Odd caught her.

"That's fine by me," Cassidy urged. "But what about me?"

Odd gained altitude and shot again. "Hold on, Cat-Girl!"

"¿En qué? I'm about to be thrown into the digital sea!"

The arrows sliced through the restraints.

Odd launched a few more arrows. The monster threw the last female off.

He dove again as soon as Cassidy started screaming, and caught her.

"Gracias, Odd!"

He turned the OverBoard around to go back to Sector 5. William turned to get at him.

"I hate to cut in William, but Aelita and Cassidy have always preferred the company of a real gentleman," Odd joked a little.

William urged his Manta forward.

Odd launched another arrow. "LASER ARROW!"

That destroyed the monster.

William floated on his sword.

"Sorry, but I hate being tailgated," Odd looked back, then made his way with Cassidy and Aelita to Sector 5.

William, angry at his failure, dove into the digital sea.

**-Back at the lab-**

"You think William's gone forever?" Ulrich asked Jeremie.

"No. I think he just went back to his new master—XANA," Jeremie typed on the keys to rematerialize Odd, Aelita, and Cassidy.

**-In the scanner room-**

Odd, Aelita, and Cassidy came out of the scanners.

"Thank God you saved us, Odd!" The psychic girl hugged him tightly.

"_Cassidy, do you want to do the scan?"_ Jeremie asked calmly.

"Yeah," She let go of Odd.

"_Great, get into the scanner."_

She did as she was told.

**-After the scans-**

"Well," Yumi kept hold of Cassidy's shoulders.

"Any connection between Cassidy and Lyoko, or XANA?" Aelita asked.

Jeremie kept typing. "Nope. No connection between Cassidy and Lyoko or XANA."

"So why is XANA after Cassidy?" Odd asked.

Cassidy gulped. "Maybe it's because of the psychic thing. Maybe he wants to use me for evil purposes."

"It's still a mystery," Ulrich said. "He had her battle 87 Megatanks, he had her get rid of the Forest and Mountain Sectors, and she was attacked by the Schyphozoa two or three times."

"Why would William want to drag me into the digital sea? I don't get it." Aelita was confused.

"I think it's XANA's new scheme," Cassidy felt worried.

"So we gotta be real careful," Jeremie agreed. "William could come back at any time."

The gang agreed.

"And now we have to think up another excuse for his absence," Yumi said, "and Delmas might not buy it this time."

Jeremie nodded. "We'll start work right away."


	44. We can do a Double Take now

**Cassidy: *does a double take* I thought that Jeremie was done with…**

**Me: Yeah but you know that this will mark the last time.**

**Cassidy: I wish—**

**Me: *Reads her mind* don't say it. He'll come soon.**

**I don't own Code Lyoko. I only own Cassidy.**

**-Jeremie's room-**

Jeremie was working on his program when a bickering Cassidy and Ulrich came in.

"And I say that if you had your powers on the time you were attacked, you would've been able to survive that attack."

"That was not my fault. I was in shock the first week and working the second week on the program to bring back William and rebuild Sector 5!"

"Well, it still is your fault."

"No it isn't. I was trying my best to defend the both of us!" Cassidy barked.

Jeremie was very annoyed by that. "Stop! If you two are going to fight, at least dress in drag and do it in the mud!"

The two stopped and looked at Jeremie strangely.

"Who are you and what the heck have you done with Jeremie Belpois?" Cassidy narrowed an eye with the look of "O…kay…?" all over her face.

"Sorry, guys."

"Not to worry, mi amigo. It just struck us as strange."

The rest of the group came in after all was calm. A few minutes later Odd decided to crack a joke. The punch line was:

"…so then, the guy gets up and starts to scream, 'Oh, no, my canoe just sprang a leak!'" He started cackling.

Cassidy cracked up laughing. "Good one!" And she kept having a laughing attack until the need for air was of great command.

To the others, Odd wanted a bigger audience than just one. "Come on! It's hysterical. The guy thinks his canoe just sprang a leak."

"I got it, Odd, if it makes you feel any better," Cassidy consoled.

"Aw, forget it. Besides Cassidy, you guys have no sense of humor," Odd grumbled, sitting on Jeremie's pillow.

"We do. That's the problem," Ulrich smiled, reading his comic book.

"Don't worry, Odd. A sense of humor comes with growing up," Yumi said.

Odd still wanted a bigger audience. "Come on, I'm the funniest guy in school. In fact, if I wasn't me, I'd be president of my own fan club."

Aelita laughed. "Now that's what I call funny."

"Yeah, but the fact is, I didn't mean it to be funny," Odd smiled.

Jeremie just lost it. "You mind making a little bit less noise? Some of us are trying to work. I've already spent a lot of sleepless nights recreating the rest of Lyoko and improving the digital equipment for all of you. Now I've gotta figure out what to do about William."

Cassidy rubbed her fingers. William's electrical attacks when he ambushed her and Aelita in their room did not come without burns. She was also a bit twitchy from all the electricity still remnant inside of her minus the heart rhythm.

"If you haven't forgotten that while you're doing your bad stand-up act…"

"It wasn't me, it was them," Ulrich pointed.

Cassidy twitched. Real smooth, Ulrich.

"…that William is stuck on Lyoko…"

"…under the control of XANA…" Jeremie and Cassidy chorused, the latter still remembering.

"…and if we don't do anything, people are going to start noticing his absence. So keep it down."

He typed on the controls.

Cassidy's leg almost twitchingly kicked Ulrich.

**-To Delmas's office-**

Mr. Delmas was playing a computer game whose music sounded a bit like Pac-Man. He liked to do that when he didn't have report cards to send or students (or his daughter) to see. His phone rang. He paused the game and then picked up the phone. "Delmas Academy. Jean-Pierre Kadic here. Uh, Kadic Academy. Jean-Pierre Delmas speaking."

"This is James Dunbar, William's father. I'm calling to say that my son won't be able to attend school this week. He's got a very high fever and he has to stay in bed."

"RATS!" he made a mistake on his game. "I hope it's not game over for him. Uh, that is to say, nothing too serious."

**-Jeremie's room-**

"Just a very bad flu," Jeremie said.

**-Back to Delmas's office-**

"Oh, that's a relief. Please tell your son that we all wish him a speedy recovery, Mr. Dunbar. Good-bye and thanks for calling."

He hung up the phone and continued playing with his game.

**-Back to Jeremie's room-**

"Whew, I honestly don't know what we'd do without my voice synthesizer!" Jeremie smiled, thankful that Delmas fell for it.

Odd clapped his hands together. "Well, now that we handled Delmas, maybe we can go to the more important stuff."

"Yeah…? Like what?" Jeremie took a gander.

"Meatballs and spaghetti!"

Cassidy's twitch accidentally kicked Ulrich in the ankle.

"Hey! I thought that we were supposed to be in drag!" Ulrich rubbed the area.

"Remember, Ulrich, William got to me. Jeremie's evil twin got to me. Even my evil twin got to me. Lately, I'm not getting any relief, but I have to get on with it anyway." She didn't mean to kick.

"Odd, I know that you're a walking stomach, but I haven't got enough time to go to lunch. Cassidy and I have to get to the factory to test out the latest codes for your new equipment."

"Are you sure I should go? What if I twitch and end up doing the same thing I did to Ulrich onto you?" Cassidy wasn't too sure on it.

"It's fine," Jeremie reassured.

"Could you program me some bellbottom pants with an orange stripe on the side?" Odd asked.

"Odd, I'm giving you tres seconds to run. Jeremie's not what you call very sunny today," She warned.

"Will ya?**!** I need a little thinking time!" Jeremie was just about fed-up.

Odd thought differently. "What you need is to hear a good joke. You don't laugh enough. Lighten up!"

Cassidy stopped twitching.

**-Back to Delmas-**

Nichole Weber helped Mr. Delmas on his game. "It doesn't look that hard, sir…There we are." She was proud to have helped Delmas win.

Delmas didn't think so. "By the way, Nichole, don't you have some work to finish up?"

The phone rang again. He picked it up. "What now?"

"James Dunbar speaking. I'm calling you, sir, because I'm getting worried."

**-At an undisclosed location-**

"I haven't heard from my son William for several days. And whenever I try to contact him on his mobile, he doesn't pick up."

**-Back at the Academy-**

"Well, isn't that a shame. I assure you I'll do everything I possibly can to find your son. I'll call the army, the FBI, even the President so don't worry!"

"Well, there's no need to go that far now."

"Now, listen, Mr. whoever alias Dunbar, you would do better to think about your own fate, and not that of your so-called son once I discover who it is that's calling." He hung up rudely. "So there!" He turned to his assistant. "'Hear that, Nichole? That's the way you have to talk to practical jokers who enjoy playing tricks on you."

Nichole was not sure on that. "There's one thing that I don't get. How do you know that _he_ was the practical joker and not the person on the phone that you spoke to before, hm…?"

Mr. Delmas realized that she was right. Something must be up.

**-In the cafeteria-**

Odd finished almost all of his portion and pushed his tray to the middle.

"Huh, you don't want your banana or the cupcake?" Aelita asked.

"They're for Einstein and Danger Psychic. The walking stomach has to look out for our local genius and dangerous psychic." He smiled.

Ulrich did, too, until he realized something. "Uh-oh. Delmas and Incredible Hulk at eleven o'clock."

Jim and Mr. Delmas walked to their table. "Hello, Yumi. I was wondering, have you had any news on William Dunbar by any chance? Jim said that you were close friends."

"Somebody told me that he was sick in bed with a very high fever," Yumi played with the excuse that she heard from this morning.

Mr. Delmas tried to say something when Jim came in, "Let me handle this, Jean-Pierre. Listen, Yumi, be honest with us. I know perfectly well that William isn't any more sick than I am." He sneezed.

"Bless you, Jim," Aelita said.

He rubbed his nose on his arm. "Thank you." He turned back to Yumi. "If you want to know what I think, I think that William is somewhere, and something tells me that somehow you know where that somewhere is. And sometimes it is better to be honest with someone. So uno, somebody should tell William that we know that he's around and doso, he ought to get back before tonight. If not, Mr. Delmas, our beloved principal, will call us some police." **(A/N: Can Jim keep a conversation or what?)** He straightened up and turned to Mr. Delmas. "That ought to do it."

**-Jeremie and Cassidy's reactions-**

"WHAT?" Cassidy shrieked.

"No way!" Jeremie was flabbergasted. "That means we have to slog away all afternoon trying to finish a program to get William out of XANA's clutches…"

"It'll take a long time!" Cassidy started to pace a few feet away from him.

"…and who knows if it'll even work, besides Cassidy?" He panicked.

**-With the rest of the group-**

Ulrich immediately cut to the negative. "That's impossible. We've got track this afternoon. You two can't keep cutting Phys. Ed all the time. One more time and you two are going be in a lot of trouble."

"Oh, okay. We'll get back to you," Jeremie came in.

"What are you going to do?"

"_Improvise, as usual!"_ Ulrich swore he heard a smile from the genius.

He hung up.

**-Back to Jeremie and Cassidy-**

"Problem: Being here and in class at the same time."

"Why do I feel déjà vu vibes?" Cassidy's voice rose a little in panic. Her eyes turned into a white area.

"Relax. If a tower is activated, Aelita can deactivate it," Jeremie reassured.

"I know, but this reminds me of our terrible twins."

He realized that she was having a vision. And he backhanded her. "Calm down, please."

**-Vending Area-**

Odd inserted a Euro into the vending machine. He looked for his drink but nothing came out. He punched the number seven a few times, but still nothing. Angered, he punched the machine and winced on the recoil. Nothing was coming out of the vending machine today.

He gave up. "I don't believe it!"

Ulrich read his comic book again. It was a new issue and it drew him in instantly.

Yumi showed Aelita her new phone. Her old one died after William's ambush.

Odd exited the vending area and couldn't believe what he saw. "I don't believe it!"

Yumi looked. "Wow, they sure got ready fast."

Jeremie took a gulp of soda, crushed it, threw it behind him over his shoulder, kicked it into the trash can, and said, "Two points." He was in his gym clothes.

Cassidy on the other hand was very calm, crushed her cup, walked her way over to the trash can, threw it in, and said, "Obeying the rules."

"Hey, everybody!" They both said.

"You two have already finished with all you had to do?" Aelita asked.

"Piece of cake, Sweetie Pie, huh. What Cha think? Sure we're done. You're looking at the man and woman." Jeremie used a flirtatious gesture.

Ulrich cocked a brow.

"How's it going kid? You must've got all dolled up for me today. You won't believe the vibes I'm feeling right now." Jeremie was not looking at Aelita but at Yumi.

The former girl looked very jealous. Since when did Yumi cross Jeremie's territory?

Cassidy smiled and looked at Ulrich. "Looks like you got all hot for me today."

Yumi looked very angry at her. She knew she (Cassidy) and Ulrich weren't the closest bunch of friends in the group.

That really set Ulrich on high alert. Since when did she act like Sissi? "Cassidy, did you get knocked for a loop today or something?"

Yumi backed away from the two. "Hey! Go back to being Jeremie and Cassidy, will you."

"It's just that... when ever I see you, I don't feel like I'm myself," Jeremie said.

Everyone around the two was very suspicious. "XANA!" Odd spouted and went to initiate the first move. But Jeremie grabbed him and threw him into the vending machine. Odd's drink came out.

"Hey, cool!"

The three bodyguards went into fighting positions when Yumi's new cell phone rang. She picked it up. _"Hello, Yumi?"_ a familiar voice came into her ears.

That set some suspicion. Was that _Jeremie's_ voice?

She pulled her phone back. "Jeremie? But then…"

A familiar picture came up on the little screen of her phone. Jeremie was smiling and Cassidy was sheepish.

She looked to the two in front of her in confusion.

"Oh, what do you think of us, guys?" Jeremie asked.

Yumi was in dead confusion. "Hold on. You mind explaining this?"

The genius on the phone answered for both him and the psychic. "You mean you haven't figured out that I made doubles of Cassidy and myself? Digital copies by activating a tower on Lyoko. This way we can work on the program for finding William and be in gym class at the same time."

**-On the Desert Sector. The author is happy-**

The tower in the Desert Sector glowed green.

**-Back to Yumi and the others-**

"You two might've warned us about it, Einstein and Cat-Girl," Odd rubbed the back of his head.

"_Sorry, guys, but we were in a big hurry,"_ Jeremie was a bit sheepish now.

Yumi smiled. "Anyway you ought to know that your doubles have got to be the biggest flirts we've ever met!" She turned the phone's screen to face the two clones.

The two were now looking smug.

"_That's strange. Must be some sort of an emerging quality in the program that appeared unexpectedly. Anyway, guys, we might not have hit a home run with it, but doubles are still pretty good."_

**-Gym class-**

"Abulabas?"

"Here!"

"Belpois?"

Jeremie lifted his two fingers on each hand. "Present."

Jim looked to him and Cassidy. "No, this has got to be a dream. Jeremie Belpois in person has finally decided to honor us with his presence, in the flesh, although there's not a whole lot. After holding the world's record of absences for every single sport, we're all going to watch Mr. Skin-and-Bones make up for lost time by throwing his lack of weight around." He cackled.

**-Yumi's science class-**

"And so it was in 1671 that Isaac Newton created his famous reflection telescope, as I'm sure you can see on this very rare and precious model of it," Mrs. Hertz lectured.

On her desk was a small telescope.

**-Back to gym class-**

"Okay, let me get out of the line of fire before I give you the signal," Jim took a step back. "Go on!"

Jeremie threw a shot-put ball.

**-Mrs. Hertz-**

"The law of gravity…the apple that fell…" The shot-put landed on her model, destroying it.

Yumi quirked a brow.

**-Gym class-**

Jim looked at where the ball flew. "Holy Toledo, Belpois."

Jeremie blew on his hand. Jim looked at him. "I mean, incredible, Belpois. How could you throw that thing so far with arms as scrawny as the wings of a chicken?"

"Uh…well, you see, Jim, he's been working out a lot," Odd covered. The clones looked to him and shook his or her heads."

Mrs. Hertz yelled from the window. "Jim! You're worse than those barbarians who burned down the Alexandria Library!"

"Why, thank you, Suzanne," Jim smiled.

The science teacher was not amused.

"Jeremie, you're gonna participate in the inter-school competition against the top student gymnasts. Those dodos at Central Prep won't know what hit him," Jim told the clone.

**-With Jeremie and Cassidy at the lab-**

Jeremie typed and saw something.

"William and three Tarantulas are heading to the tower to turn our clones evil. Now I'm getting déjà vu vibes. This is terrible twins all over again!" Cassidy shook as her memories played the scenes in her mind. "I don't want to get electrocuted again. I'm still recovering from the William Ambush!"

She twitched.

"I don't believe it!" Jeremie looked at the screen.

**-Desert Sector-**

Three Tarantulas triangulated around William as an evil plan set in the possessed boy's mind. He dug his zabanto into the ground. **"Go on."** He ordered two of the Tarantulas. He turned to the third. **"You, too!"**

As they clunked off to defend him, He looked to the tower and pushed his arms forward, smoke emanating from his body. William levitated and waited.

The tower's wires pumped red energy into it.

He concentrated.

**-Jeremie and Cassidy-**

"If he manages to get control of the tower, your clone is going to—" Cassidy gulped.

"I know."

**-Back at Odd, Aelita, and Ulrich's PE class-**

Ulrich's phone rang as he tried desperately to get Cassidy's clone off his back.

He answered it.

"Okay, champ. Now, let's see how well you can throw the Javelin," Jim told the Jeremie clone.

The clone took it and twirled it in his hand in the speed of a helicopter.

Ulrich held his phone to his face. "Jeremie and Cassidy, this better be important."

"_It is, Ulrich. XANA is about to possess our tower!"_ Cassidy was worried.

**-With Jeremie and Cassidy-**

"If it keeps up, XANA will be able to activate it in red and use it for his own evil purposes," Jeremie said.

**-Back at gym class-**

The javelin stopped in Jeremie's clone's hand and poised to aim.

Jim was standing proud.

"I get the idea. How can you get the process to stop?" Ulrich stared at the clone.

"To buy a little time, we can channel some of Sector 5's energy to shore up the tower's resistance!" Jeremie told him.

**-Lyoko-**

The tower started to fluctuate to red.

William was done with his task a demonic frown on his face turning to a small evil grin.

**-PE class-**

The Jeremie and Cassidy clones closed their eyes. The boy clone was about to impale one of the bodyguards sitting around.

"Jeremie, hurry up!" Ulrich was watching with worry as was Odd and Aelita.

The Cassidy clone was about to charge up electricity to Odd.

Ulrich and Odd were getting worried.

"We're almost there!"

**-Back to Lyoko-**

The tower's wire was still pumping XANA's red energy.

William lowered to his feet.

-With Jeremie-

The tower's resistance shored. "Okay!"

-The tower-

The tower turned green, much to William's disappointment.

**-Gym class-**

The Jeremie and Cassidy clones acted as if they were electrocuted but returned to normal.

He turned around in the right direction and threw the javelin in his hand.

It flew far into a window and somebody protested, "Hey, what do you think you're doing?"

Jim whooped for joy. "I'm going to be your personal manager, Belpois! Wait til they get a load of this! You and me, we're going to go far. Trust me! We're going to take the thrill of victory. We're going to breeze through the championship, the nationals, the planetary, the inter-planetary, the inter-galactics!" he went on and on.

Ulrich looked to Odd and Aelita. "To the factory?"

The three started to shuffle away when Jim caught Odd and Ulrich. "Stern! Della Robbia! Go on. Pick yourselves a lane and let's how you run in the 400 meters against Belpois."

The two stood up, cocked a left eyebrow, and went into the two open lanes that the clone didn't occupy.

"You ready, champ?" Jim asked the clone.

He gave a smile.

"Get ready, get set, GO!" Jim said.

The three were off, but the Jeremie clone was 100 times faster than the samurai and the ninja warriors combined.

-Lyoko-

William was ready to get the tower back under XANA's control. He tried again. The tower turned to red. He creepily smiled.

**-Back to the 400 meter dash-**

The Jeremie clone's eyes turned to XANA as did the clone of Cassidy's. She rushed onto the field as he stopped.

Ulrich and Odd stopped, only for Ulrich to get tackled from behind by the female clone and Odd to get jumped on by the male.

They both revved up to punch the two human Lyoko Warriors.

-Jeremie-

Jeremie typed on the keys while Cassidy finally got over her twitching. "You won't get us that easily, XANA."

The tower's protection shored again.

-Back to Lyoko-

The tower turned green again.

-Back to the gym class-

The Jeremie and Cassidy clones turned to good and froze mid-punch. Odd and Ulrich were able to throw off their attackers.

Jim came onto the field. "Della Robbia! You better be careful not to rough up my champion!"

He looked over his shoulder. "You okay, kid."

The clones did a cart-wheel. "I'm good, Jim."

"Okay, better safe than sorry is what I always say. Any volunteers to go with Belpois and McGuire to the infirmary?" Jim asked.

Odd, Ulrich, and Aelita raised their hands.

As the three herded the clones, Ulrich put a hand on Odd's shoulder. "I'm going to the factory with Aelita. Isolate Jeremie-2 and Cassidy-2 and watch them."

"Yeah, right, easy for you to say!" Odd grumbled.

Ulrich typed Yumi's number.

-Yumi's class-

Yumi received a message. It was the eye of XANA—he was on the move.

She didn't waste a beat. "Ma'am, can I please leave the room?"

Mrs. Hertz bumped her head on the underside of her desk. "Yes, go. You haven't seen any pieces of mirror around, have you?"

-How Odd is doing-

Odd opened a door. "If the Olympic champion and the Sissi-flirting machine would be so kind as to enter." The clones walked inside.

He shut the door and pushed the seemingly unused lockers to bar the door.

He slumped down to rest.

-Back to Jeremie and Cassidy-

"Okay, hurry up. I hardly have enough energy to protect the tower."

Cassidy clambered down to the scanner room. "I am _not_ going through the nightmare again!"

Aelita, Ulrich, and Yumi when into a scanner.

"Okay, Jeremie!" Aelita gave him the approval.

"Okay, I'll start the procedure. Transfer, Aelita, Transfer, Yumi, Transfer, Ulrich. Scanner, Aelita, Scanner, Yumi, Scanner, Ulrich. Virtualization."

After one scanner opened, Cassidy leaped inside. "I'm in, Jeremie."

"Transfer, Cassidy. Scanner, Cassidy, Virtualization."

-On the Desert Sector-

Cassidy landed in the middle of the triangle. She found she was in an upgraded version of her original costume. It was a bit thick but she didn't feel it. She had cat ears on top of her head. On her new pinkish sash were two tubes. "Wow." She also noted that her costume was purple again. "Neat."

One thing that made her crease a brow was a heart charm on a bracelet on her arm.

"I'm not one for jewelry but I like the bracelet."

Ulrich was in skin-tight orange-yellowish with some brown everywhere spandex. He had an open backpack with four swords inside. His headband stayed. "Quad blades, not bad for ripping XANA's monsters into shreds."

Yumi was in a dark red skin-tight outfit with her obi still strapped to her back. On her shoulders were shoulder pads. She had red shoes. "I like your skirt, Aelita."

Aelita looked at her mini-skirt. Her pink and green attire was replaced with a full pink body suit with a transparent skirt. She also had transparent shoulder pads. "Thanks. Those shoulder pads aren't so bad either."

"Hey, you all can discuss fashion later," Jeremie warned. "The activated tower is north by northwest."

The four were off on the OverWing, OverBike, and OverBoard. Cassidy also decided on calling her vehicle the OverDrive.

The four were in hot pursuit of the tower. Yumi spotted it in an instant. "I see it!" She told her friends.

William looked behind him. The cavalry was coming, and he and XANA could hear it.

He lowered to the ground again and possessed his zabanto. It was time!

He walked forward and stopped in between two Tarantulas.

**-Odd-**

Odd played with a broom he found when he heard a bang. The clones wanted to break free. "Oh, great, here we go again." He ran over to try to barricade the barred door. He was having trouble. "Hey, stop pushing, will ya? Don't you like it in there?"

The clones succeeded.

Odd stood at the ready.

They jumped over the lockers and was about to unleash their fury on him.

"What is going on around here?" Mr. Delmas's voice was there.

The three stopped in their positions.

"Just where do you think you two are, McGuire and Belpois?" Delmas came down the stairs.

Odd had to think quickly. "No big deal. They're just a bit edgy!" He smiled, even though the situation looked dire.

Delmas acted reasonable. "Now, now. Try to calm down, Belpois and McGuire. Don't you two think that talking it out would be much more constructive than lashing out blindly and violently?" He put a hand on their shoulders.

The two showed the eye-sign and the he-clone electrocuted the principal.

He fell unconscious.

The two clones super-quickly got to the door. Odd tried to stop them when the she-clone threw him into the principal. The two were out the door after that.

"Thanks a lot for the psychology lesson, sir. Now I gotta catch them," Odd muttered.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

"Are you up to this, Cassidy?" Yumi asked in concern.

Cassidy closed her eyes. "I don't want to, but my heart knows that XANA controls him now. I have to fight him."

William's zabanto blade was on the ground. He was ready for them at any given cost.

Ulrich was in the lead.

William growled.

Ulrich was determined to bring him down. He put his vehicle in auto-drive, jumped off, and watched his OverBike go.

"**Super Smoke!"** The XANA victim dissolved into smoke and met up with the vehicle. Using his sword as a ramp, William rematerialized from the ground. The vehicle went up the sword and over him. But it hit a Tarantula and brought it down an edge.

"That was partially a good idea," Cassidy told Ulrich.

**-Back to Odd-**

Odd ran to the park sewer entrance. Stopping, he used his stick as a balance as he caught his breath. He called Jeremie. "Jeremie, your XANA-possessed copies are on their way to the factory."

**-Jeremie-**

"_They're too fast for me to catch up to him. You're on your own, good buddy!"_

Jeremie started typing. "Okay, Odd, let's see what I can do!"

He locked the elevator.

**-To Lyoko-**

The two Tarantulas regrouped and watched the action, poising to fire.

Yumi and Cassidy gasped.

The two (plus Aelita) went up into the air. The lasers were shot and shot fast. Two of them hit the two vehicles. The three started to fall.

Aelita and Cassidy thought that this was the end when…

The star-bracelet and the heart-bracelet flashed. Aelita was caught up in the air first.

Then Cassidy was caught in the air. The two girls grew wings and they dove down then gained altitude to the air.

"Where did these wings come from?" Aelita wondered.

"And when did I place an order for them?" Cassidy looked warily at her brown, pink, and purple virtual wings.

"_Ya like them? They're just a little surprise I invented in my spare time, Aelita."_

"Jeremie, you are the wind beneath my wings!" Aelita smiled.

**-Jeremie-**

Jeremie blushed.

**-Lyoko-**

"But why did I receive the wings, too?" Cassidy asked.

"_Uh…I didn't type in the codes to add wings to you. You'll just have to live with them,"_ Jeremie sounded unsure.

"Okay. Aelita, Yumi!"

Aelita didn't need any telling twice. She dipped down with Cassidy to save Yumi.

The two flying girls grabbed her (Cassidy with one arm, Aelita with the other arm), flew up a few feet, found some land, and helped Yumi to the ground.

Yumi ran a few paces to get her bearings then turned around to look at Aelita and Cassidy. "Aelita, Cassidy, you're angels!"

If blushing was possible on Lyoko, the cat-like girl would've blushed. "It was nothing, Yumi."

Meanwhile, Ulrich was in a fight with William. The two used their swords. At first the two seemed too be evenly matched. Ulrich was not running out of land.

Soon, they stopped for a little bit for a breather.

**-With the clones-**

The clones displaced themselves until they were at the elevator. The Jeremie clone punched the box and pulled on a cord.

The car came up.

**-Back to Jeremie-**

Jeremie saw that while typing on the keys. "Okay, I can be just as resourceful as you, pals. You'll see!"

He pressed enter and the door to the elevator closed.

**-With Yumi-**

Yumi and Cassidy ran across the way to get back on top when the Tarantula stopped them.

Cassidy growled at it. "You are a dumb arachnid! Idiota grande!"

"What does that mean?" Yumi asked.

"It means big idiot, and I meant the Tarantula!"

**-With Ulrich and William-**

The embittered rivals were in a stalemate.

Then Ulrich got an idea. _Ulrich, NO!_ Cassidy's words floated around.

_SHUT UP!_

He crossed his katanas in front of his chest and said, "Triplicate."

Three Ulrichs were there in a triangular formation around William.

_Bad idea. Bad, BAD idea,_ Cassidy's words were a bit wise today.

_SHUT UP!_

William looked around the three. **"Super Smoke!"** He went behind one of the Ulrich clones and smote him where he stood. It killed him off and then the two clones disintegrated afterward.

**-In the scanner room-**

Ulrich almost passed out in the scanner. "I should've heard her words."

He gripped his stomach after he stepped out of the cabin. "Oh…!"

**-Back to the clones-**

Clone-Cassidy and Clone-Jeremie were on their way to the real Jeremie.

They found that the door was shut. The Jeremie clone decided to pry the doors apart with Cassidy clone watching.

**-With Aelita-**

Aelita dove and looped around to avoid the Tarantula lasers. William came up to watch the scene.

She was able to avoid getting shot.

William looked to one of the Tarantulas. **"Go on!"**

Aelita was doing fine when she heard a Tarantula growl. She looked up to find one doing a dive at her. She was caught in the stream.

The Tarantula landed near the vicinity of the tower.

Aelita corrected herself and flew up.

**-With Odd-**

Odd ran through the entrance and to the elevator. He noticed the damage. "They leave an impression wherever they go."

He ran off to an alternate route.

**-Desert Sector-**

Yumi and Cassidy were trying to square off with the Tarantula. One of the shots the monster fired caused Yumi to lose her fan.

"_Yumi, Cassidy! Watch out!"_ Jeremie warned.

"We're doing our best!" Cassidy was about to get fake-tired.

"_You two lost forty life points already."_

"Sixty's still enough," Cassidy nodded.

Yumi flipped and used her only fan to try to get rid of the Tarantula, but missed.

Cassidy shot off a bullet, but missed too.

The Tarantula jumped to meet the both of them. Cassidy looked at it with wide eyes behind her glasses. "Oh my butter sticks!"

Yumi only scowled at the monster then softened her expression as she looked to her friend. "You've fought a monster like this before…"

"It's been a while!"

Then the psychic heard something as she sparked a flash. "Yumi! Your fan! It's going to kill this monster soon."

Just as soon as the word soon was uttered, a fan whizzed through the air and sliced the Tarantula's head. It raised an arm as if in pain and in a victory cry at the same time as it exploded. The two jumped to a lower level and turned as Aelita flew up.

Cassidy smiled. "You go do your best work, Aelita."

She nodded and flew up to go beat William and the Tarantula Up-Top.

William growled as she whipped around and, charging two separate energy fields, fired at him and it.

He deflected the shot while his "friend" took the blow. Looking behind him, he saw Aelita flying downward inside the crater.

**-Back at the lab-**

The clones had managed to get through. Now their target was in plain sight. The two started to walk towards Jeremie.

"Odd, where are you?" Jeremie called desperately.

Clone-Jeremie and Clone-Cassidy bumped their fists together and made electricity come out of their hands.

"You-who, Jeremie 1 and 2 and Cassidy 2!"

The three looked up, the two clones' hairs standing up. Odd came!

"BANZAI!" He jumped on the twins. "You two may be their evil twins, but you two fight like lousy twins." He tried to hit them when their electricity when it burned the stick-end off. He realized it. "It's not too late to take back what I said, is it?" Odd asked.

The clones started to electrocute Odd.

He involuntarily shot up and hit a top part of the supercomputer's monitor, crashing down into the Holomap bowl a second or two later.

The clones reached up. Jeremie screamed a little too early when he realized that they were straightening their hair. **(A/N: To which the author is asking, since when does XANA care about his minion's looks?)**

Then when they were done, the electricity came alive in their hands.

They easily threw Jeremie off, making the chair spin.

**-Back to the Lyoko action-**

Aelita flew around the lasers with no trouble at all.

Cassidy smiled. _Almost like Maximum Ride, except we aren't hybrids._

The pink-haired girl almost got hit, but easily dodged it, going under the land under the tower.

The Tarantula looked under the land trying to find its target. Aelita charged an energy field. "Energy field!" She fired at the monster. Surprised, it fell off the formation and a second later, exploded.

She flew back from under the land to fly up a few feet.

"Well done!" Yumi yelled.

"Congratulations, Aelita! That took it by surprise!" Cassidy nodded.

She swooped down to the land the tower was on. She was cleared to deactivate the tower.

She landed and entered.

**-Back to Jeremie and Odd's situation-**

Jeremie recovered a little when he noticed that the clones were standing before him.

They were ready with the electricity.

**-Back to Aelita-**

Aelita rose up to the second platform in the tower.

**-Back to the factory-**

Odd ran up, fully recovered, to his friend's rescue. "Keep your hands off my buddy!"

He bumped into Jeremie 2 and then Cassidy 2. The two intensified the electricity.

**-Back to Aelita-**

Aelita made it to the second platform and went up to the interface. Placing a hand on the interface, she was ready to deactivate the tower.

AELITA

It blinked three or four times. Then it said

CODE

Aelita typed the code.

LYOKO

"Tower deactivated."

**-Back to the lab-**

Jeremie was about to get hit by Jeremie 2 and Cassidy 2 when they disappeared.

The genius boy came out of the duck and cover position he was in as Ulrich came up. Odd was slumped against the Holomap bowl.

**-Lyoko-**

The tower turned a whitish-blue.

Yumi and Cassidy smiled. The XANA attack was finished. Now all they had to do was wait until either the return trip or Jeremie to bring them all home.

William jumped from behind and landed. Yumi and Cassidy gasped and turned.

Looking to Yumi, Cassidy said, "Yumi, I hope you can forgive me for this." She pushed her friend forcefully out of the way.

William slightly touched the back of Cassidy's neck with his zabanto as soon as the girl turned. That sent shivers down the cat girl's virtual spine as she spun to face him.

He smiled a small smile.

The girl was gulping in fear. Flashes of memory danced before her eyes. Dating, the kiss, the hug in the forest, the kiss on Lyoko…

_The kiss on Lyoko…_

"Jeremie, William is about to force me into the digital sea!" She repeated the phrase two more times. "SEND THE MAGNIFICENT ODD!" She shrieked.

William didn't seem fazed by the scream and wielded the zabanto. She almost slipped when a rock stopped her.

"Send Odd!" she prayed in a small voice. "Please, oh, please send Odd."

"_Cassidy, I'll bring you back in!"_ Jeremie informed.

"That's not going to do any good; the supercomputer is probably fazed by the attack."

The sword was dangerously close to her neck. She whimpered.

"_Oh, no! It's not working!"_

"I was afraid of that!"

"_What do you expect?"_ She heard Odd. _"Everything's breaking up."_

"That's worse!"

"_That's bad news!"_ Ulrich was next to be heard.

**-Back to the Lab-**

"Only one thing to do!" Odd walked to the elevator.

**-With Cassidy's situation-**

Cassidy kept her chin up to keep from being poked by the sword when he took it away. Her eyes widened. "Holy—" She whimpered. William was still at large.

He came closer. Cassidy put up her hands up to her chest though it was useless. She put them down. _W-William, you're not gonna…_

William gave a small, heavy sound. He ran a finger across her left temple to her cheek and to her chin. _Oh, my, GOD! He did!_

Then he put the same hand on her right cheek. _Do not fall for the charm! Do not fall for the charm! DO NOT FALL FOR THE CHARM!_

Her arms disobeyed her. Her left hand went up to his left arm. _DANG YOU MIXED FEELINGS! LEAVE ME ALONE!_

His right hand pushed her chest and she grabbed William's arm.

The two fell over the edge, to Yumi's horror.

"CASSIDY! NO!"

Cassidy screamed too scared to activate her wings.

Someone came on the OverBoard and saved her. Looking up, she saw Odd, in almost exactly the same costume she was. Odd didn't have the sash. "Odd? Is that you or am I seeing double?"

"You didn't think I'd let you down, did I?" He looked at William who decided to go back to the digital sea.

"Odd, you did it! You saved her," Yumi was overjoyed.

Odd rode the board through the crater. "Hey, what do you think of my new outfit, huh?"

Cassidy tried to give him an up and down look but was still a bit shaky about William. "Uh…"

"Yeah, that's what I think, too!" Odd was a little bit seeing past her.

He got the girl to safety.

**-Lab-**

"Return to the past, now," Jeremie pressed a key.

**-Back in time in the lab-**

The others were in the factory with Jeremie and Cassidy.

Cassidy was hugging Odd way too tightly. She was shaky over what happened between her and William. Odd understood.

"So there's no hope of bringing him back right?" Aelita asked after scratching the back of her head a few times.

"Not for the time being." Jeremie leaned back in his chair.

"Have you got a Plan B?" Yumi leaned on the Holomap bowl.

Jeremie got out of the chair. "Well, we haven't got any other choice. We'll have to make a copy of William to replace him at the academy."

Ulrich crossed his arms from his chest. "Isn't that a little risky?"

"Yep, but it's the only way to calm Jim and Delmas."

"Okay, but don't ask me to take the copy to the infirmary, okay?" Odd squeaked.

**-At school-**

Odd, Ulrich, Cassidy, Aelita, and Jeremie waited for Yumi.

"Hopefully William's copy hasn't developed any 'emerging qualities' like some people I know," Odd smiled to Cassidy and Jeremie.

The girl blushed. "Did my clone really flirt with Ulrich?"

"Yeah, and it made Yumi really mad," Odd confessed.

"What a mess!" She imitated him while blushing.

Yumi and the William Clone walked outside.

"From this distance he looks normal," Aelita looked at them with some hint of mild suspicion.

"But up close?" Ulrich asked Aelita.

**-With William and Yumi-**

The principal walked up to William and Yumi. "Well, Dunbar my boy. I'm glad to see that your fever has broken and you're feeling well."

"Uh…did I break anything else?" the clone asked.

Yumi looked concerned.

Delmas took it as a joke. "Don't forget to keep taking your medicines."

Yumi laughed nervously.

**-With the younger members-**

"Well, we're not out of the woods yet!" Odd concluded.

"Not by a long mile," Cassidy agreed, blush disappearing.

**-Lyoko-**

The tower was green.


	45. We've landed TWO Opening Acts now

**What an opening act, huh? We'll have more episodes to come.**

**I don't own Code Lyoko, the Subdigitals, or the moon. I only own Cassidy.**

**-In the cafeteria-**

Everyone was reading fresh-from-the-press newspapers. Yumi, newspaper-less, walked to her friends' table. "Hi everybody!" she greeted warmly.

"Hey, Yumi," Jeremie smiled.

"Snare a seat and sit down, this table's always open for one more," Cassidy patted the empty seat between her and Ulrich.

"Thanks, Cassidy," Yumi nodded and sat.

Ulrich was reading an article on something. "What's happening, Yumi?"

"Do I need to tell you that there's actually a little news from the Kadic news this time?" Yumi asked.

Odd roared from across the table. "Don't tell me you haven't _heard_?"

Ulrich handed his girl the paper. Yumi read off the headlines. "Scoop of the year…blah, blah, blah, Chris coming to Kadic…blah, blah, blah, too amazing." She put down the paper. "Chris? Chris who?"

"You're kidding! Haven't you ever heard of the Subdigitals?" He turned to her.

"Chris is their drummer," Odd looked up from his newspaper.

"And he's going to be here today. Oh…" Cassidy had a spark-flash. "He's on a mission of some sort. I think I'll keep this as a surprise."

"Hey, you guys, cool it! It sounds like a phony scoop," Yumi sounded skeptical.

Cassidy shook her head with a smile. "It's a true scoop this time! I feel that this is not going to be phony."

Jeremie agreed with Yumi. "Yeah, sure does. Just another one of Milly and Tamiya's dumb stories."

"Well, Cassidy could be right. It could be for real. It seems that Chris is coming here to visit his uncle," Aelita read the article.

"You mean that Chris has an uncle who works here?" Yumi seemed piqued.

The pink-haired girl put on a sly smile. "I wonder who that can be."

Jeremie was a bit appalled at his sweetheart. "You, too, Aelita? How can you believe that stuff?"

**-Under the Arches after lunch-**

Odd kept reading his newspaper while the others walked behind him. Yumi was still a bit curious. "If it is true, who do you think his uncle really is?"

"Fumet…"

"Too strict," Cassidy gave her opinion.

"…Chardin, Mr. Delmas—not Mr. Delmas. Chris could never be Sissi's cousin," Ulrich gave his opinion.

"If she was, she would be shouting it out to anyone willing to listen to her," Aelita said.

"In fact, she hasn't said anything about Chris being her cousin. Delmas is out! Definitely," Cassidy ruled it out.

"What about Rouiller?"

"Huh? Michael Rouiller the custodian? Right, in that case, why not Jim—g" Odd ran into something big.

"Well done, Della Robbia…"

**-Inside Cassidy's visions-**

"_You can't go through life like a clumsy cow, Odd."_

_Jim was talking to Odd like he was in the present._

"_You have to pay attention…"_

**-Slapped to reality-**

"…just as clumsy as ever," Jim was looking at Odd.

Cassidy looked to Jim confused. Wasn't he going to say something like a big speech?

"Jim, what a coincidence! We were just talking about you," Odd smiled.

Jim cocked a brow. "Who me?"

"Uh, yeah, it seems that the Subdigitals drummer is coming to Kadic to visit his uncle and we thought you'd be the first to know," He smiled.

"Uh, me? Now who gave you an idea like that?" The physical education teacher waved a dismissive hand.

_Holy cow,_ Cassidy realized something.

Odd slapped his head lightly. "Oh, I must forgot. How stupid of me! That's not your style of music at all, is it, Jim? You're more into, like, oldies, huh?"

"Yeah, but wait a second. I also happen to like rock music, and I love the Subdigitals. Those guys are very talented artists, especially my nephew. He's really great!" Jim checked his nails.

"Hey, I was right! You're Chris's uncle!" Odd smiled.

"Holy cow! I had a _feeling_ that Jim's nephew was Chris!" Cassidy winked to Odd and the others. "I had a feeling" was a code phrase for "I had a vision" to the gang.

"I can't believe it!"

"Uh…I didn't say that, did I?" Jim asked.

"Uh-huh. You sure did, Jim!" Odd was excited. He turned to his friends. "That's what he said, right?"

Jim felt that there was no sugar-coating this one. "Okay, okay, I know Chris is my nephew, but…"

"Wow, now, that's what I call a sensational scoop." Odd was very excited.

Cassidy felt that she would keel over laughing in joy.

Jim had to take control. "I'm counting on you all to not tell anybody, especially you, Della Robbia. I don't want this getting around."

Odd placed his right fist on the left side of his chest. "I promise not to tell a living soul, Jim."

_Boy is he wrong,_ Cassidy thought, cackling at the outcome before it could become the outcome.

The others stared at her.

**-Outcome-**

A crowd of fan girls were chasing after Jim at high speed.

Jim tried denying it. But he learned an important lesson. Never trust Odd with a secret like that.

**-Later, in the auditorium-**

Tamiya flashed a photo from her Polaroid camera.

Jean-Pierre Delmas was at the podium. "My dear Chris, on behalf of the entire staff and student body of Kadic Academy, I would like to wish you a warm welcome. Chris, all yours." He stood aside to allow Chris to come up to the microphone. He wore a dark red shirt with a bright red logo and had white hair. He also was wearing orange pants with a gray belt and purplish bracelets on each arm. His eyes had a light with them.

Applause erupted from every seat in the Auditorium. Girls screamed, boys clapped and cheered, raising his or her hands in the air and/or standing up.

Chris took it all in stride and put a hand up in an attempt to stem the applause. "Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for this enthusiasm." The cheers became even louder. "As I guess you already know, I came here to visit my uncle." Jim smiled in pride. "But there's another reason as well."

Cassidy buzzed eagerly with excitement. _This is it! Chris is going to announce his other mission! I can't wait!_

"The Subdigitals have decided to do a school tour to discover new talent and to develop that talent by giving you guys a chance to be the opening act at our next concert!" Chris announced.

Yumi looked to Odd, Ulrich looked to Aelita, and Cassidy looked to Odd, too. Odd looked back at Yumi and Cassidy, and Aelita looked back at Ulrich. This was the chance of a lifetime.

More applause, cheers, and squeals emanated in the small room.

Tamiya snapped another Polaroid picture.

Chris raised his hand again. "And thanks to the kind authorization of your principal, we've organized an audition for this afternoon in your gymnasium."

The auditorium went wild with applause, cheers, and squeals.

**-Odd and Ulrich's dorm-**

Odd threw his door open and raced over to his side of the room. Ulrich and Yumi walked in behind him. "Now, where did it go? I'm positive I put it here!" The now-cat-like warrior was getting panicky.

Ulrich smiled slyly. "Since when do you ever actually put any of your things away, Odd?"

Odd was throwing things behind him left and right, but hitting no one. "Ha ha-ha, very funny. You know, you guys could give me a hand." He turned to them.

Yumi showed a little confusion. "Maybe if you tell us what you're looking for, maybe we could help."

The blond-and-purple haired boy went back to his stuff. "My CD demo. Oh…I absolutely have to play it for Chris."

Yumi spotted something underneath Kiwi's paw. It was a CD case with a yellow and purple pattern on it. She picked it up. "Well you did put it away, in Kiwi's drawer."

Odd took the case from her hand. "Let's see…" He then saw the hand print on the back and smiled.

_Thank Yumi first,_ Cassidy's words found their way to Odd's head.

"Thanks!" Odd yelled to Yumi excitedly.

She smiled.

Then Odd turned to Kiwi. "And thank you, my adorable little diggity dog!" He petted his doggie and then looked at the CD. "Glory and fame are just around the corner. I hope not too many kids show up."

They went down to the entrance where they found many kids ready to be the opening act.

"Uh, you were saying," Ulrich asked his buddy.

Odd's hopes shrunk.

**-Aelita and Cassidy-**

Aelita and Cassidy checked their closets. _Where could they be?_

In their room there were a few pairs of thrown shoes. They didn't hit anyone but they littered the ground.

Then the two girls sparked an idea. Opening a drawer from under their beds, they found a box. Aelita dumped the contents of her box on her bed while Cassidy sorted through hers. Finally, they found the CDs they were looking for.

The pink label on Aelita's CD was: Aelita's Remix.

The purple label on Cassidy's CD was: Cassidy's Remix.

"There you are…" The two smiled.

Aelita picked up her CD and kissed it. Her chance to shine was right around the corner.

Cassidy hugged her CD as soon as she picked it up. She knew she wasn't going to win but there was no chance not trying.

They picked up their shoes, put them up, and then turned to walk out the door. Jeremie came in, making Cassidy trip over her own feet. She got up and brushed herself off.

"Oh, Jeremie, it's you!" Aelita said surprised.

Jeremie had a notepad in his hand. "Yeah, I was thinking, Aelita and Cassidy, that since Delmas cancelled class today, we could make some headway on the program for our new virtual ship."

Aelita and Cassidy looked back, a bit shamefaced. "Well, we'd like to, but…"

He saw their CDs in their hands. "Oh, no. Come on. Don't tell me that you two are going to waste your time going to that audition. Imagine what XANA might be plotting on the network even while we're talking. We gotta find a way to travel there, and I was counting on you, Aelita and Cassidy."

Cassidy looked like she'd been caught with her pants down, shamefaced and about close to tears.

Aelita put her CD in her pocket as did her roommate. "Alright, we won't go."

Jeremie smiled.

**-Back to Odd and his waiting-**

Sissi started flaunting her CD. "Chris has got to choose my demo. He's got a good ear for talent and then I'll be the greatest DJ of all time."

Odd was impatient. "The greatest DJ of all time, huh? What does DJ stand for? Dumb Jerk?"

"Just cool it, Odd," Sissi turned to him and jabbed her finger in his face. "You'll eat those words when you see me in a stretch limo!" She turned back.

Odd's hopes didn't stop shrinking.

Yumi sensed her friend's distress. "Odd, don't worry. You'll see. Your mix will blow everyone away."

"Yeah as long as you don't bust our eardrum," Ulrich cracked.

"Hey, man, with friends like you, who needs enemies. Thanks for your support, Ulrich," Odd scolded.

**-With the competitors-**

Mathias had a smooth soothing mix of music. Chris didn't seem all that amazed or amused.

As soon as Mathias was done, Chris said, "Thank you…Mathias, was it?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Next!" He crossed his name off his list.

Sissi was next. "Hello, I'm Sissi Delmas, daughter of Jean-Pierre Delmas, the school principal."

Chris was getting physically thirsty. Traveling to Kadic left him parched.

"Um…I'm going to play my best track for you. It's called _I'm Headed for the Stars_."

"Okay, Sissi. I hope it really takes off for you."

"You won't believe your ears Chris," Sissi put the vinyl disc on the platter.

She put the toning arm on it as it started to play.

It was the worst music audition Chris had ever heard. The pitcher in his hand and the glass on the table broke in agreement.

Hervé and Nicholas clapped for her.

"Thank you, Sissi!" He was not very amused.

She walked off angered.

Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi passed her, Hervé, and Nicholas. Odd decided to crack a joke. "Hey, Sissi, your stretch limo have a flat tire?"

"Dork!" Sissi was angered enough.

When Odd was up onstage, he put his CD in the player, then held up a vinyl record. "Uh, hi, my name is Odd Della Robbia. And I think I better explain that my music is a little experimental. Actually, uh, well, a little different. Well anyway, you're going to love it."

Chris wasn't so sure. After Sissi's performance, he looked as if he'd rather start running than listen.

He cocked a brow.

**-With Jeremie, Aelita, and Cassidy-**

"See, this is where I'm stumped. I still don't understand the real nature of the transitional interface between Lyoko and the network even though I've gone over and over the flux and…"

Aelita and Cassidy were disinterested, staring vacantly out into space.

"Hey, Aelita, Cassidy, are you two listening?"

Aelita snapped out of it. "Oh, I'm—I'm sorry, could you say that again?"

Jeremie looked over to Cassidy. "And you, Cassidy?"

Cassidy snapped out of it after that. "Whoa, what?"

"Never mind," Jeremie grumbled a little. He turned back to the computer. "There might be a way. I discovered that we could reconfigure the navigation parameters in relative function to the frequency of the flux…"

**-Back to Odd-**

Odd turned the pitch control down. "And there you go!" He took off the headphones.

Chris was a bit blown away. "Um…well, um…I—"

"Odd! Odd Della Robbia and what you just heard is just a little taste of what I can do. I swear. I've got lots of other tracks. Do you want to hear them?" Odd asked.

"Some other time, maybe. Thanks a lot, uh—Odd," Chris marked his list.

Odd went up and put his CD on the table. He felt shot down. Yumi and Ulrich put arms around their friend as they walked to the exit.

"I was good, wasn't I?" Odd asked, not a hint of pride in his voice.

"Well…you gave it your best shot, and that's the main thing," Yumi comforted.

"One thing's for sure, you said it was different and you weren't lying," Ulrich said.

They passed Jim.

Jim looked to them, and then went over to his nephew. "Well, now, kip, did you find your future star?"

"I'd rather not talk about it, Uncle Jim," Chris sounded downhearted.

That confused Jim.

**-Back to Cassidy, Aelita, and Jeremie-**

Beep, beep

Jeremie got a little irritated. "What do you mean system error? Okay, don't blow your cool, Jeremie. We'll just shift the polarity of the contact flux and…" he turned to Aelita and Cassidy. "Hand me those figures." He noticed the two were about-meditated on his bed. "Huh?"

Concerned he asked, "Are you two okay, Aelita and Cassidy?"

The two snapped out of it this time. "Huh? Something wrong?"

"It's okay; I can finish up on my own. And if you two wanna go, you two can go."

"Are you sure," Aelita asked.

"Yeah, I can see what's holding us up," Jeremie sounded down.

"Okay, we're off, then," Aelita set the laptop off her lap as Cassidy brushed off a piece of paper she didn't understand. "See you later."

The two rushed off.

Jeremie felt down but turned to resume his work.

**-With Chris and Jim-**

"It's not that simple. It's all part of a promotional operation. If we don't bring the record company some new talent, they'll be down on me like a ton of bricks. We already made us change our name," Chris had put on his sunglasses.

"Don't worry, my boy. There's gotta be a youngster around here with a ton of talent," Jim reassured.

Aelita and Cassidy ran by without them noticing.

Three or four girls surrounded Jim and Chris.

"A few words for the Kadic News?" Milly asked.

"Just one or two questions," Tamiya told Chris.

"Can I have an autograph, Chris?" a blond girl with low pigtails asked. **(A/N: If anyone knows the name of that girl let me know please so I can change it.)**

**-Back to Aelita and Cassidy-**

Aelita and Cassidy burst in to see it was empty in the room except for the turn tables.

"Oh, no. We're too late," Aelita said.

"Well, we could play our music anyway," Cassidy said as a vision flashed in her eyes.

She smacked Cassidy before she could make an earthquake in the gym.

**-Back to Chris and Jim-**

"When's your next concert?"

"Are you working on a new album?"

"Sign my note book, please?"

Jim had to stem the girls. "Calm down. He can't answer your questions if you all talk at once. Now let's try one at a time…"

Music filled the air waves; it was excellent, vibrant, and new. The music flowed into Chris's ears. It stopped and more music, almost as excellent, vibrant, and new flowed in.

He put his hands up. "Hold on. Quiet down. That's fantastic. It's what I've been looking for all day today. The same with the second one."

**-On Lyoko-**

A tower in the Forest Sector turned an ominous shade of red.

**-In the gymnasium-**

Chris walked in. "Hey, I—uh…"

But whoever was there had gone. Not even leaving a trace.

"Oh, no, I'm too late!" Chris put on his sunglasses again and exited the room.

But little did he or anyone else know that **XANA was on the prowl.**

**A specter came out of the turntable.**

**-At the vending machines-**

"And do you figure that compared to the rest of the candidates, I've got a pretty good chance of getting picked? Just thinking of being the opening act for the Subdigitals gives me the chills," Odd buzzed.

Ulrich looked to him. "Odd, uh, it's not in the bag just yet."

Aelita and Cassidy sat behind them, looking tired.

Milly and Tamiya came up to them. "Do you wanna hear a scoop?" Milly asked.

Tamiya was excited. "Chris finally found the opening acts he was looking for!"

Odd was happy. "I knew it. Fame, fortune, and glory are all mine now!"

"Forget about it. Nobody knows who they are, not even Chris."

Cassidy cheered up and tapped Aelita on the shoulder. "Aelita! Escucha! Hablan de nosotras!" she squeaked in Spanish.

"But how can that be. I haven't started repeating my name," Odd said.

"No. It happened after the auditions. All he did was hear the music. He didn't see the DJs," Tamiya told him.

"I don't believe it," The now-cat-warrior whined.

Aelita and Cassidy realized that it was them that they were talking about!

"He went to see the principal to see if he could find his Cinderella's, whoever the two boys, two girls, or boy-and-girl are." Aelita and Cassidy ran passed the three girls and two boys.

Milly was confused. "Huh? What's the matter with them?"

"Huh, well, when you gotta go, you gotta go, I guess."

**-With Jeremie-**

Jeremie was working on the virtual ship when the super-scan popped up. "Oh, no! A XANA attack!" He pulled up Ulrich's number.

"_Yeah, Jeremie?"_ Ulrich asked.

"The super-scan just picked up an activated tower. We've got to get to the factory fast!"

"_Okay, but Aelita and Cassidy took off and no one knows were they went,"_ Ulrich informed his friend.

"Wait for me under the Arches. I'll stop by their room first. See you in a few minutes," Jeremie hung up with his buddy.

**-With Aelita and Cassidy-**

Aelita and Cassidy ran over to find Chris under the Administrative Arches. "There he is!" Cassidy panted.

"Chris," Aelita cried. "We were looking for you." She pulled out her CD from her pocket.

Cassidy did the same when her senses wired themselves into a vision. _Wait a minute!_

"We wanted to give you these," she was surprised when Chris grabbed her wrist.

_No!_ Cassidy's thoughts screamed.

Aelita dropped her CD and tried to pull free. Cassidy tried to help, too.

The shades the clone wore showed the eye of XANA.

"You ain't getting Aelita on _my_ watch, _XANA dork!_" Cassidy yelled.

If the situation wasn't as dire, Aelita would've said something along of the lines of, "Good one, Cassidy!"

Then the clone grabbed Cassidy's wrist with his other hand. The two tried to pull away.

"NO!" Cassidy shrieked loud and clear.

She tried to run when she dropped her CD.

"You won't get away with this, XANA!"

The XANA sign pulsated and electricity sprang from him into the two girls. Both of them shrieked. Aelita went unconscious first, but Cassidy held fast. She was strong but not stronger than her friend. "You're not going to get me," Cassidy's eyes welled with tears as a hammer-like pain came into her head.

The clone's eyes flashed and pulsated as more electricity leaped into her. She hissed and shrieked as the realm of unconsciousness drew into her. _No…I…won't go into…the…digital…sea…_

She sank to the ground, eyes closing.

XANA succeeded.

**-Later-**

Milly and Tamiya were walking when they spotted Chris.

"Chris, I bet you found out who the mystery DJs are. It is—" The cheery demeanor from Milly changed to fear. They gasped as they saw who was on his shoulders: Aelita and Cassidy unconscious.

They recoiled in fear as he walked past them.

**-With Yumi, Odd, and Ulrich-**

"_Hi, leave me a message,"_ Aelita's voicemail said.

_"Hola, you've reached Cassidy's cell phone. Leave a message,"_ Cassidy's voicemail told the gang.

"They're not picking up!" Yumi concluded.

"They're not in their room, either," a voice told them. They looked to see Jeremie coming to them. "We were working together, but they weren't concentrating. They were more interested in showing their demo to Chris at the audition."

"Oh, now I understand why they shot off like rockets," Ulrich put two and two together fast.

"Do you think Aelita and Cassidy are the mystery DJs?" Odd asked.

"Kinda looks like it," Ulrich said.

Jeremie was confused. "You mind filling me in?"

"Don't worry. We'll tell you on the way," Yumi reassured. She then turned to the samurai and now-cat warriors. "You two go and find them. They might've gone to the principal's office to see Chris. Meet us at the factory."

Odd and Ulrich nodded.

**-With the clone, Cassidy, and Aelita-**

The Chris clone was walking in the sewer with the two girls on his shoulders.

**-With Yumi and Jeremie-**

Yumi and Jeremie ran passed Milly and Tamiya who were wide-eyed.

They stopped. "You look like you're in shock. Did Sissi say something intelligent for once?" Yumi asked them.

"Chris has just kidnapped Aelita and Cassidy," Tamiya said.

"What?" Jeremie was shocked.

"Yeah, we saw him pass by with Aelita and Cassidy on his shoulders. He was totally weird like the mad killer in _Executioner 2_," Milly stood up.

"Shouldn't we call the police?" Tamiya stood up beside Milly.

"Uh…I wouldn't do that. That was for the—the uh—video! I mean, the new Subdigitals video. They're doing a new science fiction thing with robots invading the school!" Yumi came up with an excuse on the fly.

Jeremie followed easily. "Right, we ought to go now. We've got parts in the next scene they're shooting."

Milly and Tamiya were confused as they raced off.

**-With Odd and Ulrich-**

"Yes, Jeremie," Ulrich was on his cell phone. "Huh? Chris? Okay."

Ulrich and Odd raced for the office when the now-cat-warrior spotted something on the ground.

"Huh?"

There were two CD cases on the ground. One was labeled Aelita's Remix and the other was labeled Cassidy's Remix.

"Hey! Look!" Odd picked up the two CDs. "These have to be Cassidy and Aelita's demos."

Ulrich looked in the window. He saw two people outside of the principal's office. "Odd, look! Chris and Jim!"

"Outside?" Odd asked.

"They walked right into the lion's den."

"Aelita and Cassidy aren't there. Chris must've locked them up somewhere."

Ulrich took a closer look. "That's weird. He doesn't look XANAfied, does he?"

Odd turned to his buddy. "Only one way to find out."

**-With Jim and Chris-**

"Look, kid. There's nothing to worry about. We're going to find your DJs," Jim gave his nephew a little pep talk.

"Chris," Odd came in. "Check out these CDs; they're just the ones you're looking for!"

"Hey, Stern, Della Robbia, cut that out!" Jim told them.

"It's important Jim!" Ulrich said as Odd made his way to Chris to give the CDs. "Look! We've got the demos Chris has been looking for."

Chris put his sunglasses up on his face to look at the CDs. There was a little struggle as Odd looked into his eyes, not letting go of them.

"What's wrong? You want an autograph or what?" Chris asked.

Odd saw no eye of XANA and let go of the CD cases. "Oh, sorry, Chris, but I…uh…" He almost had nothing to say.

"Beat it, you two! Scram. And I suggest you watch your step. I've got my eye on you. We'll discuss this later," Jim said.

The two scrammed out of there.

**-Outside the admin building-**

"I just don't get it. If he didn't kidnap Aelita and Cassidy, then it must've been…" Odd said.

"A polymorphing specter," Ulrich and Odd looked to each other.

**-At the factory-**

Clone-Chris carried Aelita and Cassidy to the scanner room. He placed Aelita in one scanner, and then proceeded to place Cassidy in another.

After the unconscious were in their place, the clone ghosted up inside the wiring as the scanner doors closed.

He started two virtualization processes without typing on the computer.

Jeremie and Yumi came up to the lab to see something on the computer. "Huh? What's going on?" Jeremie panicked when he saw two virtual avatar cards about to get to Lyoko. "Aelita! Cassidy!"

He tried to stop the process. "Oh, too late!" he lamented.

The countdown went to zero.

**-On Lyoko's Forest Sector-**

Aelita and Cassidy virtualized on the sector and landed unconsciously on the land.

The impact made the two slowly wake up. They stood up and looked around their surroundings. "What are we doing here?" Aelita asked.

Cassidy looked ahead. "Uh! A name starting with W is here with Krabes!"

"How do you know," Aelita looked to her friend.

"They're in front of us coming in fast," Cassidy watched the horizon.

She was right. In front of Aelita and Cassidy were William and two Krabes.

**-Back to Ulrich and Odd-**

Odd and Ulrich were running in the forest when Ulrich's phone rang. He picked it up. "Yeah, Jeremie, I'm listening."

**-To Jeremie and Yumi-**

"You can stop looking for Aelita and Cassidy. They're on Lyoko," Jeremie said.

**-Odd and Ulrich again-**

"I know. There's a polymorphing specter on the loose. Okay, we're on our way. We're at the secret passage," Ulrich and Odd stopped.

They were about to open the secret passage when they heard a laugh.

Odd and Ulrich looked to see Jim and Chris there.

"You guys are as easy to track down as caribou in the Great North," Jim said. "Stay where you are. We have a few questions to ask you."

Ulrich stood up. "Look, Jim, but we don't have time. We have to—"

"Well, we happen to be in a hurry, too." Chris showed Odd the CDs. "Are you the one who put these together?"

"Well, yeah, uh, no. They're friends of mine—Aelita and Cassidy," Odd answered.

"What are their last names," Chris asked.

Ulrich was getting impatient. "What's the difference? They're in danger and that's why we're in such a big hurry."

"What do you mean in danger? What's this all about?"

"Take us to her immediately unless you'd rather settle this in the principal's office," Jim commanded.

Odd and Ulrich looked to each other and then back to Jim and Chris.

"Okay, then, come with us, but let me warn you about two things. Try to avoid asking any questions, and get ready for a workout," Ulrich said.

"Works for me, Stern. There's no work that I like better than working out," Jim was easily swayed.

**-In the scanner room-**

"Jeremie, I'm ready," Yumi said, standing in a scanner.

"_Okay, here we go,"_ Jeremie said.

The scanner door closed.

"_Scanner, Yumi. Transfer, Yumi. Virtualization."_

**-On Lyoko-**

William and the two Krabes were now only a few feet in front of Aelita and Cassidy.

The two backed up and Aelita made the first move. "Energy field."

The field was sliced in two by William's zabanto. He charged up some smoke in his hand and threw it at both Aelita and Cassidy.

It blinded the both of them a little, even though the latter was wearing glasses.

He concentrated until he heard the sound of fans whizzing through the air. He broke concentration to deflect one of the fans and dodge the other.

He turned around to see Yumi behind the Krabes.

She caught her fans. "You may be possessed by XANA, but you're still a rookie on Lyoko, William."

"**ATTACK!"** William ordered.

The two Krabes turned around and attacked Yumi, firing their lasers at her.

Yumi cart-wheeled and flipped around to try to avoid the fray.

Aelita and Cassidy took it as a signal to run. William was no longer facing them.

Yumi did a back-flip when William looked backward. His targets were running away.

"**FOLLOW HER!"** William ordered again.

The two Krabes clunked off to follow them.

He watched.

"Hey, William!" Yumi called his attention.

He turned to face her.

She unsheathed her fans, ran out, and threw them.

William deflected the two of them but was unprepared for her kick to his stomach.

He flipped and landed on his feet, sliding backwards a little, then ran over to slice Yumi. She jumped on him with one foot on his head and one foot on his back and pushed him down.

"Jeremie, where are Odd and Ulrich? We're going to need some backup over here!" Yumi asked.

**-Back at the Lab-**

"They're on their way. Meanwhile, try to get to the activated tower. It's bearing south of your position. I'll bring you up a vehicle," Jeremie typed on the keys.

Meanwhile, the wires sparkled and cracked with electricity as the clone rematerialized in the lab.

**-On the bridge-**

Ulrich, Odd, Jim, and Chris raced to the factory entrance.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

Yumi dodged another two zabanto strikes by flipping.

She threw her fans again, which William deflected, but then caught them while jumping.

**-With Aelita and Cassidy-**

Aelita and Cassidy were running from the Krabes avoiding shots when Cassidy realized they were coming toward an edge.

They stopped near that edge.

The Krabes were not too far off.

"We'll have to jump," Cassidy said.

"You read my mind, didn't you," Aelita asked as they backed up to get a good running start.

"I—I think so!" The cat-girl was surprised.

The two raced up, jumped, and landed somewhat clumsily on the other side. They were able to regain their balance by using their other foot.

They looked over their shoulder. The two Krabes were a little indecisive about what to do.

Aelita taunted, "What's wrong ladies? Having a bad leg day?"

Cassidy smiled. "Good one, Aelita."

Then a laser shot, making the two dodge. They looked around to see another Krabe.

They had to run again.

It followed.

**-Back to Jeremie-**

Jeremie was typing when he was caught off-guard by the clone grabbing him and throwing him off to the side harshly.

The clone advanced onto him.

**-Back to William and Yumi-**

William was chasing Yumi now.

"Jeremie, where's that vehicle, huh? The old William was hard to get rid of but this one is a lot worse," Yumi turned around to face him, flicked out her fans, and threw them.

William was ready to deflect when Yumi used her telekinesis to move the fans away and get him. He was surprised as he was knocked down.

**-Back to the Lab-**

Jeremie was receiving hell when the elevator opened to show Ulrich, Odd, Jim, and Chris. He was thrown to them.

Ulrich, Odd, and Jim exited the elevator first, all three worried for their friend/student.

"Jeremie!" Ulrich cried.

Jim looked to the clone. "What is this place? A mad scientist's hideout?"

Chris saw his clone. "Who's that guy over there, a stunt double or a clone?"

"A polymorphing specter," Ulrich said.

"Yeah, well, specter or not, he's not getting my autograph," Chris went up to his clone.

The clone grabbed his shirt and threw him over to one side. He went over to finish him of when Jim came up behind him. "Hey, hands off my nephew, pal!" He grabbed his chest and one of his hands. "Now you'll see what it's like to mess with an old Special Forces agent."

The clone fazed and went behind him.

"Hey! We really need you, Einstein," Odd was getting a little scared. "So wake up!"

Jeremie got up, rubbed his head, looked at the fray, and said, "Get—get to the scanner room. Aelita—Cassidy—they're in trouble! Hurry up!"

The clone was about to beat down on Ulrich, Odd, and the resident genius when Chris came up behind him and hit him with a doubled fist. "Hey, what's going on around here?"

"I told you not to ask any questions," Ulrich said.

**-With Aelita, Cassidy, and the Krabe-**

Aelita and Cassidy were still running from the pursuing Krabe then found another Krabe in their way.

"Ugh, two against two," Cassidy shook her head as they swiped a hand over their pendants.

Their wings popped out from behind their backs. They flew away from the chase.

"Thank goodness, now I think the tower is south," Cassidy said.

They had to avoid the laser fire but then they got hit. The wings disappeared and they fell to the edge. Cassidy looked down. "Oh, HELL!" She hated the digital sea for she had been in it once.

"Jeremie!" Aelita called up to her Savior.

**-Odd and Ulrich-**

Odd and Ulrich were in the scanners.

"All set, Jeremie," Ulrich said.

"_Okay, first let me program an OverWing,"_ Jeremie told them.

**-In the Lab-**

Jeremie programmed the vehicle.

**-Back on Lyoko-**

The two girls scrambled to get a hold, but even with one of them having claws, they couldn't get a grip.

They fell and Cassidy started saying panicked, vehement prayers to God.

They fell on something hard.

**-With the Scanner room-**

"_Transfer, Ulrich, transfer Odd."_

**-Back on Lyoko-**

Aelita and Cassidy got up.

"Thanks, Jeremie. That was a close one," Aelita said, putting her hands on the bar.

"_Move out, girls. Hurry up!"_ Jeremie warned them.

"Alright," Aelita nodded.

They rode over the Krabes.

"_Virtualization!"_

Odd and Ulrich landed in the middle of the Krabe-fest.

Odd landed _on_ a Krabe. "Hey you little crab cakes. Did you miss us?" He fired three or four laser arrows at it, then flipped off to help Ulrich get the next one.

Ulrich flipped and got on his one. Unsheathing one of his katanas, he stabbed it in the Eye. "Impact!"

He leaped off as the Krabe exploded. "You can have the last one. Super Sprint!" He ran off.

"Great! I love having seconds!" Odd smiled.

**-Back to the fray in the lab-**

The clone stood up, making Chris turn around.

Jim woke up and saw the action. "I'll get rid of that imposter now!" He stood up and charged. "No one does that to me and gets away with it! GERONIMO!" He got his nephew.

His nephew protested. "No, Uncle Jim." But Jim ended up putting him unconscious.

Jim realized his mistake.

Then the clone changed into Jim.

That stunned him.

**-Back to the fray with William and Yumi-**

Yumi back-flipped a few times to avoid slam after slam of the zabanto.

She unsheathed her fans and threw them after him but he deflected them again.

She caught them. Then ran over to a small island-like place with logs to get to the island.

Yumi flipped over and over to get to the middle of the island and William followed. He unleashed some smoke and it got to her. Yumi collapsed on the log.

He came over to her and devirtualized her.

William then eyed the horizon. His XANA enhanced sight showed him that Aelita and Cassidy were almost on the way to the tower.

Ulrich came over soon after. "If you're trying to get a date with Yumi, I'm not sure that's the right way."

**-In the Scanner room-**

Yumi came out with a growl. She was so close.

**-Back to William and Ulrich's fight-**

The two stared each other down before Ulrich unsheathed his katanas and charged at William.

**-Back to Chris and Jim-**

"You don't have to be a math genius to know that there is one too many Jims here. It reminds me of the time I fought against hurricane windstorms in Vegas back in '94! In the third round, I just—" Jim hopped around his clone, ready to fight.

Chris got up, retrieved a pipe, and accidentally hit his uncle.

"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry!" Then the clone neared him.

Jeremie was giving those on Lyoko news. "How are you guys doing? We've got our hands full here, and if this keeps up, the Subdigitals are going to need a new drummer!"

Chris was backed against the wall with the Jim clone.

**-Back to Odd-**

"We're doing our best, Einstein," Odd said.

The Krabe Odd was battling was still in play.

He climbed a tree ("Okay, let's get down to business!") and flipped, shooting three arrows at the Krabe. "LASER ARROW!"

He ran off to meet up with Ulrich.

**-With Ulrich-**

Ulrich was still battling William. He dodged, deflected, and tried to slice him as did William.

At one point William's zabanto was dug into the log.

Ulrich saw his chance to charge at him but ended up failing as William dissolved into smoke and rematerialized to kick him into the island.

He woke up quickly and crossed his katanas just in time to keep William's zabanto from devirtualizing him.

He used his foot to separate the three and ran to a more spacious part of the isle.

"**Manta!"** William ordered.

His black Manta obeyed his call and floated up, preventing Ulrich of any escape.

William landed off the log onto the island and Ulrich hopped backward.

Now it was a real duel.

Ulrich kept the zabanto at bay but one of the Manta's lasers connected with Ulrich's heel.

It didn't seem good when…a laser arrow connected with the black Manta and destroyed it.

"Surprise!" Odd yelled, coming in on his OverBoard.

William was distracted. **"Huh?"**

The two broke free while William looked up.

**-Back to Aelita and Cassidy-**

Aelita and Cassidy were near to the tower when a Krabe came in. Aelita stopped the OverWing.

"Leave it to me. I haven't killed un monstruo in a coon's age," Cassidy whispered to Aelita.

Aelita nodded and landed the vehicle.

Cassidy hopped off, raring to fight. "You don't look so tough." She grabbed her tube, turned it into a gun, shot a bullet into the laser bulb. She smirked smugly, then jumped on its back and shot the Eye symbol, dodging a few lasers along the way.

Aelita ran in the tower as soon as the Krabe was distracted.

Cassidy was excited. "Finally, a good kill on Lyoko. I missed that part!"

Aelita rose to the second platform.

**-With the clone and Chris and Jim-**

The clone of Jim grabbed Chris's neck and electricity sprang from the hand.

**-Back to Aelita-**

Aelita made her way to the interface on the second platform. Placing a hand on the screen, she was ready to deactivate the tower.

AELITA

It blinked three or four times. Then it said

CODE

Aelita typed the code.

LYOKO

"Tower deactivated."

**-Back in the lab-**

The clone went away.

Jim and Chris recovered and looked to each other.

Chris showed a nervous grin.

**-With William, Odd, and Ulrich-**

William looked to see that the tower had gone blue. Then he looked to Ulrich.

"Don't worry, William. I'll fight you every step of the way," Ulrich vowed.

"**Super Smoke!"** William said as he disappeared.

**-Back to the Lab-**

"Belpois, I want an explanation right now. What is going on? And what in the world is all the equipment for?" Jim demanded.

"I would, but I'm getting tired of explaining it to you, Jim, 'cause in 10 seconds you won't remember any of it anyway," Jeremie sounded beat.

"Not so fast. First tell me who Aelita and Cassidy are," Chris held up the CDs to Jeremie's face.

"Return to the past, now!" Jeremie said.

**-Back to the auditions-**

"I finally figured out what was wrong with my demo," Odd said. "I didn't push the second break with a series of scratches. You'll see, I'll do a lot better next time."

Yumi and Ulrich rolled their eyes.

**-With Jeremie, Aelita, and Cassidy-**

"Well I guess in the end, XANA's attack ended up giving us another free afternoon to work on our virtual ship," Jeremie looked over the data, "huh, Aelita and Cassidy."

"Yep," Cassidy agreed.

Aelita nodded and gave an affirmative sound.

*knock, knock, knock-knock*

"Come in!" Jeremie cheerily called.

The door opened to reveal Chris. "Excuse me, I'm looking for Aelita Stones and Cassidy McGuire."

"That's us!" Cassidy pointed to Aelita and herself and nodded.

"Wow, I'm very glad to meet you two, Aelita and Cassidy. I heard your demos and I think they're really great. Can we go over to the gym? I would love to hear them live!" Chris showed their CDs.

"Really?" Cassidy's heart nearly exploded with excitement.

"I'd like to, but um…I'm not sure we can." Aelita turned to Jeremie.

"Go on, girls. It's an offer you two can't refuse," Jeremie showed them a sign.

"Okay, then let's go!" Aelita set the laptop off her lap again as did Cassidy with that confusing sheet of paper.

The two ran off. Jeremie showed a happy look on his face.

"By the way, how'd you get a hold of our demos?" Aelita asked Chris.

"Oh, one of your friends gave it to me," Chris said.

Jeremie was smiling.


	46. And Clone William Wrecks the Room

**Wow. We wrecked this room, huh?**

**Cassidy: Wrecked it? We damaged it at first sight.**

**Me: You're crazy! But Heaven knows I love you.**

**Cassidy: So when will he come?**

**Me: You just wait.**

**Cassidy: We don't own Code Lyoko. But she does own me.**

**-Boy's Bathroom in the morning-**

Odd was brushing his teeth, feeling something on his chest, but it wasn't a thing. It was something on his mind.

Ulrich walked out of the showers in his light greenish shorts, drying his hair. "You aren't sick, are you Odd? Usually, you start the day by singing something from the Subdigitals." **(A/N:****Odd ****didn****'****t s****queal ****about ****Paco, ****so ****the ****Subdigitals ****there ****you ****go.)**

"I dreamed about a deadly epidemic that was transmitted by potatoes, meaning there were no more French fries or potatoes for lunch. Do you believe in nightmares like that, huh?"

"Absolutely, but don't worry. If you ask Einstein nicely, he'll program you some virtual fries," Ulrich said.

He turned to face him. "Food is sacred, Ulrich, so no jokes okay?"

"Speaking of Einstein, I wonder where he is."

Ulrich got dressed and walked to Jeremie's room. Cassidy met up with him. "You get to wake Jeremie this time."

The last time she woke Jeremie was when she accidentally deleted the Forest Sector.

They went in to see Jeremie slumped on his keyboard.

With a wink from the brown-haired girl, Ulrich walked up to him. "Hey, Jeremie, forget you had a bed?" He shook his shoulder gently.

Jeremie woke, giving a grunting-sounding yawn. "I spent the night on the recovery program to bring back William." His voice got to his regular tone. "Hey, what's the time?" He adjusted his glasses.

"Ten-two. Better hurry. We wouldn't want to miss the blockbuster math class on Thales' Theorem, would we?"

Jeremie stretched. "Okay, see you two there!"

Cassidy ran out of the room, detecting something. "ODD! YOU ARE NOT GETTING JEREMIE'S PORTION!"

"OH, YES I AM!"

Ulrich gulped down a chuckle.

"Anyway I finished the program. As soon as classes are over, we can launch it!" Jeremie rose from his set to stretch some more.

**-Cafeteria-**

Jeremie came up with his tray. "You're too late. You can't have seconds today!"

"But—I didn't even have firsts," Jeremie protested.

Rosa pointed her spoon at him. "You did, Jeremie. Odd Della Robbia said you gave him your portion."

That sunk Jeremie's hopes of getting a meal.

He went to the table with only a glass of water. Cassidy was glaring at Odd.

Ulrich took the time to joke. "Well done. No sleep, no meal—nothing like leading a healthy life."

He looked to Odd. He turned to him. "What's wrong? Ulrich told me that you were skipping breakfast. It would've been a pity to waste a good meal." He offered his banana. "You want half of my banana?"

Jeremie put up a hand. "No thanks, I lost my appetite."

Odd shoved the rest of his banana in his mouth and chewed it.

Aelita barely held back a snicker. "You better not deny that you pig out all the time."

"It's not exactly pigging out. It's more like…a survival instinct," Odd said, swallowing the banana.

Jeremie was confused. "Huh, survival?"

Cassidy shook her head. "Come on, Odd. You don't think that going to Lyoko and hoping we keep our life points as survival?"

"I've gotta store food reserves in case potatoes get contaminated. Like, in the nightmare I had last night," He swallowed again.

Aelita and Ulrich laughed until…

"Your attention, please, boys and girls. I have an important announcement to make," Mr. Delmas said.

Odd buried his face in his hands. "That's it! My nightmare's come true! Good-bye, potatoes, forever!" he dreaded.

"This afternoon after class—" (To which Odd groaned as if in mourning) "—you will have the grand opening of the recreation room you've all been waiting for."

Odd realized something. "There's no epidemic?" He stood up. "LONG LIVE FRENCH FRIES! YAHOO!"

Delmas seemed fazed at first, as were the staff and students, but then continued. "This recreation room for boarding students was designed for relaxation. You'll have at your disposal a foosball table, in addition to a table for ping pong and a television set."

Students cheered.

"Alright, quiet down, please," Delmas tried to calm. "Remember that with privileges come responsibilities, meaning taking care of your rec. room. And that responsibility begins today with the election of a monitor to supervise its use."

**-Outside the cafeteria-**

Everyone was talking about the rec. room when Yumi walked up. "Hi, everybody."

"Hey, Yumi!" Cassidy greeted.

"What's happening?"

"We have to elect a monitor for the new rec. room," Aelita explained.

Jeremie felt at his computer bag. "Oh, no, I left my computer upstairs. I'll see you later!"

"It seems to me, that as the principal's daughter, I'm the most obvious choice," Sissi said.

"Huh?" said Milly.

"No way! Forget about it. If Sissi's elected monitor, I think I'd rather go to the study hall. We want a rec. room where we could have a lot of fun," Odd remarked.

The snob confronted the now-cat warrior. "Oh, yeah! Who would you pick, huh? Yourself?"

"Why not me? You remember I was already elected class rep," Odd gloated.

Cassidy came in between the two. "Calm down, you two. We are all in this juntos. There's absolutely no reason to fight."

It seemed to have worked.

"No one would know you're our rep! You never seem to have enough time," Sissi threw that at him.

Cassidy sighed. Odd and Sissi, if given enough time, would probably stage a full-scale war against each other. The only hope would be Sissi's father.

Yumi came up behind Odd. "She's right, Odd. XANA's not going to give you the time to supervise anything."

Sissi overheard. "It's none of your business, Yumi. You're a day student."

Cassidy growled. "You leave Yumi out of this!" she defended.

"No, and stay out of this, McGuire!" Sissi yelled at her. "This doesn't concern you."

"If you insult one of my friends, _it __does_ concern me!" Cassidy got a little angry.

"Of course, if Odd is elected, you and your little gang will take over the rec. room."

Cassidy clenched a fist and started growling some more. A ball of fire settled in her stomach. "You're getting on my last nerve, Sissi!"

Jim came over. "Okay, what's going on here? Time to go to class, go on."

"For one thing, Sissi's getting on my last nerve," Cassidy's eyebrows were slanted.

"But, we're trying to elect the rec. room monitor, Jim, and we…"

"YOU CALL ALL THIS SCREAMING AND YELLING AN ELECTION?**!** We're going to do this demographical—" He stammered on the word, trying to say it right.

"Democratic?" Cassidy asked, calming down at last.

"WE'RE GOING TO VOTE, OKAY?**!**" Jim yelled, scaring the psychic girl. He pointed out the candidates. "You—" He pointed to Odd. "—and you—" He pointed at Sissi. "—and you—" He pointed to Cassidy.

"WHAT?**!**" Cassidy yelled.

"—over there," Jim told them.

"But I didn't want in!" she was appalled.

The three walked over behind him.

"Now, let's see, Fiquet, le Duc, and Dunbar, over here, too," Jim ordered.

"I absolutely want out of this election. I—I protest being in this election," Cassidy tried to get out.

Jim turned to her. "You stay here until the election is over!"

Cassidy sighed and banged her head on the side of the cafeteria. _I __do __not __want __to __be __in t__his!_

The other three came over. "Uh…is that me?" William asked.

"COME ON! WE HAVEN'T GOT ALL DAY!" Jim yelled. "Now whoever wants to vote for Anaïs Fiquet hands up now!"

**-Jeremie-**

Jeremie rushed in and found his laptop.

**-Back to the elections-**

"With two votes more than Elisabeth Delmas, the winner is Dunbar," Jim went over the numbers.

The clone was confused. "Hm…?"

Sissi looked downright hateful of him.

He cheered. "Ha-ha, I won!" Then he was confused again. "Does anyone know what I won?"

The rest of Team Lyoko was a bit impatient. Things were a bit aggravating since the clone came on. For one thing, Cassidy had to act as if she fell in love with the clone when he was wandering the girls' dormitory one night.

"And now, everyone, break ranks. I'll tell the principal who won the election," Jim walked off.

Milly walked up to the William clone. "William, how about a word for the Kadic news? Some of the kids think that you were elected because you're not part of a group. Do you think it was a victory for democracy."

"Democracies? Who's he anyway? I thought it was me who won this time," William clone was confused.

Other students laughed.

Jeremie raced back to his friends. "Hey, what happened?" He whispered.

"A disaster!" Yumi said.

**-Math class-**

"Now then, to sum up Thales's Theorem…" Mrs. Mayer went on and on.

Jeremie whispered to his friends, "This is a disaster. William's copy doesn't have the same personality as the original. He can blend in with a crowd, but alone he sticks out like a sore thumb."

"Well, at least for now, nobody thinks what he says is stupid. They think he's like a comedian," Ulrich paused in his notes.

"Yeah, but they're bound to get onto him," Jeremie said.

Aelita and Cassidy eyed them, wanting to join in.

"After school, I better launch the recovery program for bringing back the real William."

"I hope it works, Jeremie, because the one we have now is about as brilliant as Kiwi," Ulrich hoped.

Odd took total offense. "Hey, my dog is very, very intelligent, so there!"

Mrs. Mayer turned to Odd. "Odd, do you want to add a corollary to Thales's Theorem?"

"What color, ma'am? Uh no, my dog doesn't have fleas. I mean, I don't have a dog or fleas either!"

The bell rang and students ran out.

Yumi was waiting when Ulrich, Jeremie, Odd, Cassidy, and Aelita came from each direction. "Well, I'll run over to the factory now, and start the recovery program, and then…"

"I'll go with you," Aelita put a hand on Jeremie's shoulder.

Cassidy nodded. "I'm coming, too."

"That way we three can all welcome William home, okay?" Aelita smiled.

Jeremie liked that plan. "Yeah, why not?"

"We'll go to the rec. room so there'll be three of us to stop his double from doing anything dumb," Ulrich agreed.

**-Later on-**

William clone tried to turn the key. "Oh, no, the lock is broken."

Jim was supervising the monitor. "You're turning the key the wrong way, you chowder head."

Inside the recreation room was brilliant. A foosball table was perched on the far left side of the room. On the right and inside was a small area was a ping pong table. In between was a benching area with cushioned seats and a coffee table. Several books on shelves and a mini fridge was where the students walked in.

The room impressed the students as they walked in.

"Now, I want you all to behave like adults. And don't forget, this recreation room is under _your_ responsibility." Jim spotted the ping pong table. "Whoa, ping pong, my favorite game!"

**-In the factory-**

As the elevator door closed, Aelita got a little enthusiastic and held Jeremie's hands. "Jeremie, William's coming back! I just can't wait!"

He smiled in euphoria. "Uh, me neither." His voice was shaky.

"And I would like to know why William k-kissed me in Sector 5," Cassidy was a bit sheepish.

They took the elevator down to the lab.

**-Back with Jim and the ping pong table-**

"Listen, you kids. We're going to break in this table right now," Jim demanded. "Okay, Della Robbia, right here! Best of three sets, are you ready?"

Odd was in dread. "Oh, no! How am I going to keep an eye on William?"

"Go on, we'll handle him," Ulrich reassured.

Odd walked off.

Heidi Klinger came up to William. "William, could you open the fridge for me?"

The clone was confused.

Yumi cut in. "Hey, don't waste his time." She grabbed the keys from him. "A monitor should step back from things like that."

"Step back? If I do, I'll bang into the wall," the clone said.

Yumi lost some of her patience but went to open the mini fridge.

**-In the Lab-**

Jeremie typed on the program while Aelita and Cassidy watched from either side of him.

"Are you going to use the tower of William's clone?" Aelita asked.

"It seems to be the only way," Cassidy nodded.

"Yeah, because the original William's DNA is stored in that tower," Jeremie said.

**-Back to the rec. room-**

"Ha-ha, twenty to five. Match point!" Jim sent the ball Odd's way, but the latter missed. "Twenty-one, you lose!" He gloated.

Odd was getting tired.

"I was interstate champion when I was young. Why don't I tell you why I was called the Killer Racket."

"Uh, no thanks, Jim," Odd put his paddle down and walked off. "Maybe some other time."

He looked up, shrugging as he did so. "For once, I'd rather have talked about it."

The William clone picked up the ping pong ball.

Jim pointed to him. "Dunbar! Don't just stand there like a statue. Come on; it's your turn!"

The clone was very confused but was walking up the way when Yumi grabbed his arm. "Uh, Jim, he can't play and be monitor at the same time."

Jim didn't seem all that convinced.

Ulrich jumped up, pointing a finger in the air as if he wanted to do a move from Paco: the King of Disco. "I'll play against you, Jim!"

He waved him down. "No, no! I need someone of my caliber." He turned to the William clone. "Come on! Let's see how you play, Dunbar."

**-With Cassidy, Aelita, and Jeremie-**

Jeremie typed, and then pressed enter. "Here goes!"

**-On Lyoko's Desert Sector-**

The tower stayed green.

**-With Jim and William's game-**

William threw the ball up in the air and sent the ball Jim's way a mite too hard.

The gym teacher ducked. "Dunbar, don't you know what ping pong's all about?"

The clone looked confusedly at him. "No."

That concerned Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd. She looked to the two boys with a sort of groan.

Sissi was watching paid programming on TV.

Hervé and Nicholas were bored of it. "TV shopping, what a drag!" Nicholas complained.

"_I__'__ve_ got the remote, so _I_ decide!" Sissi said.

"Why don't you switch over to one of the science channels, huh, Sissi?" Hervé asked, almost as whiny as a nine year old.

Sissi sounded almost conceding. "Yeah, sure!"

"Really, do you mean that?"

"What do you think nerd?" she growled.

That was a let-down.

**-I'm more interested with what Jeremie, Cassidy, and Aelita are up to at this point than TWACS, so let's go to there, shall we?-**

The program seemed to be going great when a red (!) showed up on the screen.

"Oh, no, there's a bug in the program," Jeremie said.

Cassidy was two seconds away from rubbing her forehead on the ground. "That stupid error. Yo lo odio!"

"You hate it, don't you," Aelita said.

"Just as much as I hate XANA."

"I sure hope it didn't put the tower offline," he kept typing.

**-Back to William and Jim's game-**

"It's already match point, Dunbar! Try to score one point at least," Jim said.

Suddenly the clone closed his eyes and started to shake a bit. It only lasted a few seconds, but then, when he opened his eyes. The iris and pupil grew a little. He also had a determined look on his face.

Jim sent the ball his way and he shot it right back with an air of confidence and strength of mind. It bounced back to him a little rough.

He was shocked. "That's impossible. Beginner's luck."

"Killer Racket, was that it, Jim? Oh before I'm finished with you, they're going to start calling you Clumsy Racket!" the clone backfired. "Ready?"

"Ha! Well, we'll just see about that," Jim gloated.

Ulrich saw that. "I'll bet cha Einstein just tweaked the program!"

Yumi walked toward them. "Anyway we gotta come up with something and right now!"

Odd sparked an idea. "I got an idea!"

"Your serve, Dunbar."

He walked up to the table just as William was about to serve and faked a huge sneeze.

The ball went to Jim but it never went across to the other side.

"Della Robbia, you trying to distract me or what, you little cheater!" Jim yelled.

William shooed him away with his paddle. "Hey, out of the way, loser!"

The now-cat-warrior walked back over to his buddies.

"I'll call Jeremie!" Yumi whipped out her cell phone.

**-Back to the Lab-**

Yumi called.

"Yumi, what's up?" Jeremie asked worriedly.

"_What__'__s __up __with __you? __He__'__s __worse __than __ever!__"_ Yumi said.

"Let's just say, eh-heh, that um…there's a bug in the program," Cassidy was a little nervous and laugh-y at the same time.

"And in the files in the tower. I don't know which ones, and it's impossible to deactivate—" (To which Aelita and Cassidy walked over to the elevator) "—so I can begin all over again."

"We'll have to deactivate the program manually. We're going to Lyoko!" Aelita took charge.

"With William out there?" Jeremie was worried. "It's too dangerous!"

Cassidy stiffened at the mere mention of her ex's name.

"The super-scan doesn't show any XANA attack. Anyway do we have a choice?" The pink-haired girl asked her knight in glasses.

"No, okay, but be careful, ladies," Jeremie conceded.

The elevator closed as soon as the two girls were in the elevator.

**-Back at the game-**

William and Jim were going at it like lightning.

**-In the scanner room-**

Cassidy's eyes went white. "Wait, Aelita! I—I detect that something might go wrong!"

Aelita looked back. "Why? What's going on?"

"William might attack!" An earthquake shook the factory.

"_Cassidy, hold on, let me go down!"_

Jeremie came down the ladder.

Aelita tried to cool her down. "It might not happen, Cassidy. The program might've worked."

Oftentimes, something that might not happen _did_ happen. When Jeremie fought with Cassidy about Aelita, he said that what she was seeing might not happen. It did happen.

He backslapped her across the face. "Snap out of it, please!"

Her brown eyes slammed to the forefront. The earthquake lasted two seconds more, then stopped. "What happened?"

"Another vision," Jeremie said.

**-We interrupt the scene with another one-**

Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd felt something underneath their feet. Odd, on fearful instinct, clung on to Ulrich. "What's going on, Ulrich?"

"Either Cassidy's having a vision, or it's a natural earthquake."

Just as fast as it came, it stopped.

"Cassidy had a vision."

**-Back to the show-**

Jeremie went back up the ladder as soon as Cassidy and Aelita went into the scanner.

"_Ready, ladies? Here we go! Transfer, Aelita, Transfer, Cassidy. Scanner, Aelita, Scanner, Cassidy. Virtualization!"_

The two were sent to Lyoko's Desert Sector.

Once there, they ran to the green tower. About halfway, Cassidy stopped to defend the position.

Aelita bumped into the tower as if it turned into a rock. "Jeremie, Cassidy, what's going on?"

"The tower doesn't recognize you, Aelita," Cassidy neared her again. "This so reminds me of the time we had that staring contest in the Ice Sector."

"_It__'__s __too __risky, __I__'__ve __got __to __get __you __two __back,__"_ Jeremie said.

"No, Jeremie. Then I wouldn't be able to get back quickly if XANA attacks. Try to debug the tower. We'll stay here and wait." Aelita felt around the tower.

"_I__'__m __not __convinced, __Aelita,__"_ Jeremie said.

**-Back to Jeremie at the Lab-**

Jeremie typed on the debug program when he saw three red dots on the screen. "Oh, no. Aelita. Oh, I told you and Cassidy it was dangerous. You two have visitors!"

**-Back to Lyoko-**

Four Tarantulas traipsed on the scene.

"Jeepers! And William is scared of arachnids!" Cassidy rolled her eyes as she and Aelita saw them.

"_I__'__m __programming __you __an __OverWing!__"_ Jeremie said. _"__You __better __take __shelter __in __another __tower. __Cassidy, __defend __the __best __you __can.__"_

"I defend Aelita every single day, Jeremie. It's a part of my vow to her that day in Sector 5," she nodded.

The OverWing appeared in a snap. The two girls hopped on, and started to take off.

They flew over the Tarantulas' heads.

"Catch us if you can, ladies!" Aelita taunted.

"And don't let the door hit you where the Megatank should've shot you," Cassidy taunted as well.

The two girls shared a good laugh as they flew away.

The Tarantulas made their way to the tower.

"_Bad news, XANA's trying to take control of the tower!"_

"We'll handle the Tarantulas," Aelita turned the vehicle around.

Cassidy got the first tube from her sash.

The tower was now about to go under attack.

**-Back to Jim and William's game-**

William screamed and lost concentration on the ball. It went passed him.

"Ha-ha, it's match point again," Jim said. "You're not such a big shot now, huh?"

**-Back at the lab-**

"I haven't even got a way to transfer energy from Sector 5 to protect the tower," Jeremie kept typing. "That's also bugged up."

"_We__'__ll __do __our __best, __but __I __fear __that __the __tower __will __turn __red,__"_ Cassidy said.

**-To Lyoko-**

The two girls made their way back to the under-siege tower.

Laser fire took hold immediately.

Aelita charged up an energy field. "Energy field!" Then she tossed it. It missed.

"It's okay, Aelita," Cassidy patted her shoulders.

She then fired at one of the Tarantulas. It exploded.

"_Nice __one, __Cassidy,__"_ Jeremie said.

**-Back to the game-**

The clone was starting to get dizzy as the ball passed him by.

"Finito! Out! Basta! Yours truly, Big Jim the Killer Racket strikes again!" Jim was pleased.

Yumi's phone rang again. Odd was relieved. "Whew, Einstein saved us in the nick of time."

She pressed the receive button. An envelope came to her and opened up. The card read an eye of XANA.

"Not quite. To the factory, let's go," Yumi said to her friends.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

Aelita and Cassidy dodged lasers on the OverWing.

The tower turned dark red.

**-With William clone and the rec. room-**

The clone's eyes changed into the eye of XANA in a flash.

Just as the three Lyoko Warriors were walking out, William tackled Yumi to the ground and started to strangle her.

Other students watched in horror.

Jim took control immediately. "Dunbar, what's the matter with you." He went to remove him but he shoved him back into a bookshelf.

Everyone was shocked and made a mass exodus out of the room.

Yumi was still held down about strangled but tried to fight for her right to live.

Ulrich took hold of a chair and hit him in the back of the neck.

The clone crumpled to the side and to the floor.

She recovered on the ground for a few seconds when Odd came up to her to pull her to her feet. "Come on, let's get outta here!" He said.

The three fled the room as fast as they could. The XANAfied clone recovered.

"Let's split up, that way one or two of us will get to the factory," Yumi said.

"Okay," Ulrich and Odd said simultaneously.

The three took different directions. Odd took the right direction, Yumi ran straight, and Ulrich took the left direction.

Sissi grabbed Ulrich's arm. "What's gotten into William? Why did he turn into Dr. Shrank?"

William was walking out of the building, and then broke into a run to attack.

Ulrich looked. "I'm the one he wants. You're okay." He turned to run when he felt himself being pulled back.

"Ulrich, don't leave me here. I beg you, please," Sissi cried.

"That's all I needed. Come on, hurry up!" he pulled her along while the clone chased after them.

**-Back at Lyoko-**

Aelita and Cassidy dodged another few lasers from the Tarantulas on the OverWing. They had to circle around the top of the tower to attack one from behind.

"Energy Field!" Aelita called. The field hit one of the monsters dead center.

It combusted.

She did a little victory call. "Two down. How's it going, Jeremie?"

"_The tower won't recognize your ID, Aelita."_

**-Back in the Lab-**

Jeremie saw four dots on the screen. One of them was fully red.

"Aelita, Cassidy. At 300 meters south from where you are," he worried.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

"Where?" Aelita said.

Cassidy's virtual heart jumped. "Holy cow! It's—that's—"

"_William,__"_ Jeremie said.

_Your __vision __is __going __to __come __true. __Your __vision __is __coming __true,_ her visions said to her.

"_Yeah, __it__'__s __him,__"_ Jeremie whispered.

William was being chased by three Krabes. They were gaining ground fast.

He needed to do something fast. So he flipped onto the first Krabe and stabbed it with his zabanto. He kept running after destroying it.

"Fantastic, the program worked. I'll go help him," Aelita took off with Cassidy on the vehicle.

"_No, __Aelita __and __Cassidy __wait!__"_ Jeremie said. _"__I__—__it __could __be __a __trap.__"_

"But what if the program really worked? This is our only chance to bring back William," Aelita said.

"_Well, go on then, but be careful."_

"Okay!"

**-The Chase-**

Ulrich burst into the dorm room entrance and put a chair up against the door.

"That'll hold him for a while," He said as he and Sissi raced up the stairs.

The clone blasted through the door and, growling, chased after them.

**-Park entrance-**

Odd and Yumi rendezvoused to the sewer cap. She looked to him. "Did you see Ulrich?"

He put his hands on his back. "Yeah! He had the copy on his tail."

"Let's hurry up!"

They opened the hatch entrance and entered the sewers.

**-Back to the chase-**

Ulrich and Sissi ran to the top floor of the dorm building and to a door. "It's shut."

"It's all over for us." Sissi was about to bite a nail.

He looked back and saw an opening in the ceiling. "Maybe not!"

**-With Odd and Yumi-**

Odd and Yumi rode their skateboards to the factory, jumping the gap along the way.

**-Back to Ulrich and Sissi-**

Ulrich opened the ceiling and climbed inside. He then turned around. "Give me your hand!"

Sissi did and he pulled her up.

**-With the clone-**

The clone was still rushing after them and found the ladder.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

He ran away from the two Krabes. He kept running until a laser connected to somewhere on the shoulder/armpit area. He fell down and tried to gather his zabanto when the Krabe had him pinned.

It was about to kill him with a white laser from its underside when someone saved him. He looked up to see Aelita and Cassidy on the OverWing.

"Bull's Eye!" Cassidy complimented.

"'Need a little help?" Aelita asked with a smile.

The two had to avoid the laser fire of the last monster.

This was his chance. He collected his weapon and cut off two of the front legs of the tall monster still standing. It crawled pathetically to him. Running up on it, he stabbed it in an eye symbol, and jumped off.

It rose up a little, but combusted anyway.

Aelita and Cassidy came back as soon as it did.

"You're back at last, that's great," she smiled.

"Oh, no," Cassidy realized something fast.

He looked to her. "Good to see you again, **Aelita ****and ****Cassidy**!"

"That!"

William charged up a smoke.

"Oh, no! Jeremie!" Aelita cried.

It was all a ruse. A false hope to Aelita and Cassidy.

"_Aelita! __Cassidy!__"_ Jeremie yelled.

Like a bullet from a gun, he shot the two off their vehicle.

**-Back to the chase-**

Ulrich and Sissi climbed a ladder to the window. Getting desperate, he pounded on the glass.

The weights on the top of the opening to the dorms, burst, and the clone of William came up.

Sissi screamed a little. Ulrich grabbed her hand. "Hurry up!"

**-To the lab-**

The elevator opened up to reveal Odd and Yumi.

"Ulrich's not with you," Jeremie asked.

Odd had to answer. "He's playing the clown with the clone."

"Rats. Hurry, guys. Get into the scanner room, now!" Jeremie ordered.

**-With Aelita and Cassidy-**

Aelita and Cassidy woke up on the OverWing. Cassidy was on the edge. They looked up to see William commandeering the vehicle.

"_Aelita, Cassidy! Get a move on! If he leads you two into the digital sea, you'll be virtualized for good. The same as Franz Hopper, your father, Aelita!"_

"Roll off, Cassidy," Aelita whispered to her.

She was unsure about that. "Mom and Dad taught me not to get out of a moving vehicle."

"Well, they aren't here!" She bumped her off the vehicle, then rolled off shortly afterward.

They bounced around on the sandy land until skidding to a stop, almost bumping into each other.

Cassidy coughed for a few seconds. "And that's why Mom and Dad taught me not to get out of a moving vehicle."

William looked back.

"No time," Aelita pointed at William.

The two got to their feet as he turned around on Yumi's vehicle.

**-Back to the chase-**

The William clone came out of the dust.

Ulrich and Sissi climbed to the top of the roof. The two looked back. "Oh, no, why me?" he almost whined.

He knew he had vertigo and being on the roof was going to agitate it.

**-In the Scanner room-**

Odd and Yumi walked into a scanner.

Jeremie silently virtualized them.

**-On Lyoko-**

Aelita and Cassidy ran for it while William still pursued. Just then a rock formation lifted and Cassidy had to duck to avoid bumping into it.

It was thrown into the OverWing and William was knocked off.

That slowed him down a hair but he Super Smoked in the ground.

They kept running until they saw an OverBoard and a driver to it. "Hop on, Princess and Cat-Girl, and be careful of the closing doors. All aboard!" Odd said.

"Alrighty!" Cassidy's virtual heart sang with joy.

The two jumped on his vehicle.

William rematerialized from the ground and growled as he saw them get away.

"You sure are a tough customer," he heard a voice, then turned to see Yumi, using her telekinesis on a rock that she had. She tossed it, but he was a bit quicker. He used his sword to slice it then charged at her.

He nearly smashed her when she cart-wheeled out of the way and kicked him in the back.

William dropped his zabanto and turned around.

**-Back to Ulrich and TWACS-**

"Faster, Ulrich!" Sissi tight-rope walked across the roof while Ulrich crawled.

"I can't. I—I just can't." Ulrich was having his vertigo spell.

The William clone jumped on the roof and started to chase the two on top.

Sissi took off the top shingles and threw them at the clone. "Go away, you monster!"

The first shingle missed him, but the second one hit him straight on the forehead.

Ulrich looked at her. "I'll hold him here while you escape."

"I won't go!" she protested and made her way to him.

The clone watched and charged.

**-Back to Yumi and William-**

Yumi threw her fan at William, but he Super Smoked under her and kicked her in the stomach. She was on the ground in a second.

**-Back to Jeremie-**

Jeremie typed on the program's files. "Identification, Aelita." Pressing the enter key, he hoped it would work.

A red exclamation point popped up.

"Oh, no! Not again! I'm never going to get there!"

**-Back to the action on Lyoko-**

"_Aelita, __you__'__re __going __to __have __to __wait __before __you __can __enter __the __tower,__"_ Jeremie told Aelita who rode with Cassidy and Odd to the red tower.

The Tarantulas began to strike.

"Okay. One for each of us," she whispered to Odd.

The two girls activated their wings and flew.

"I'm going to see if I can find another monster, or if I can help Yumi in any way," Cassidy told Aelita as she flew away.

The other girl nodded and flew with the purple-and-blonde boy.

**-Back to the chase-**

Ulrich crawled slowly to Sissi.

"Ulrich, come on!" She hastened.

The William clone was still rushing toward them.

"Too late!" Ulrich said as he looked back.

He got up. "You and me, William!" He said.

The two struggled while Sissi watched. But then William threw him to the gutter. Several shingles kicked up as he fell.

"Ulrich!" She yelled.

He caught the gutter just in time.

The clone advanced.

"Hands off, William. Don't you touch my Ulrich," Just as soon as she tried to defend him, she fell too. But she did kick the clone off as she almost fell off the building. Ulrich caught her.

"Sorry to say this Sissi, but you're not as light as you say you are," Ulrich said.

The clone landed with a growling thud. He then got up and ran back again.

**-On Lyoko-**

Yumi and William were still fighting when Cassidy flew in. "¿Necesitas ayuda, Yumi?"

The Japanese Lyoko Warrior cart-wheeled out of the way of another smash.

She then twirled and held her fan a few inches from his forehead.

Cassidy aimed her gun as she landed.

William kicked Yumi in the stomach and then Cassidy. The two slid a few yards then jumped to avoid getting hit.

The first girl threw a fan at him but he deflected.

It cut Yumi's hand and she shook to make the virtual sparks go away.

That distraction proved costly. William took his chance and devirtualized Yumi.

**-Scanner room-**

Yumi came out of the scanner with a small headache.

**-Back to Cassidy-**

Now she was alone with William. She aimed her gun. "You're not getting me, William, ya hear!"

Her arm shook out of conflicting fear and William could see that.

"I warn you, I don't wanna do this, but I have ta!" She cocked and shot a shell.

He deflected the shot. **"****Your ****unfailing ****fear ****delights ****XANA.****"**

She tried another shot. Her thick-from-costume knees shook. "You—you won't get me," she stammered and gulped.

He again repelled her attack.

She fought off every urge to break down and cry to him that they used to date.

He walked over to her. She nearly froze. "Will-William. What are you—"

He stroked her face with his left hand.

Inside her head, an alarm sounded. _Abandon __ship. __Abandon __ship. __The __horse man __is __too __strong! __Retreat, __ThunderClan!_

"_Cassidy, __get __out __of __there!__"_ Jeremie tried to snap her from her thoughts.

The first thing she needed to do, was getting passed the mental block.

She gulped hard.

William started playing with her hair.

"_Cassidy?"_

Cassidy was getting a lot more frozen.

Then, when she least expected it, he devirtualized her in an instant.

**-In the scanner room-**

Cassidy staggered out as if she had just been kissed for the first time into Yumi.

"What happened?" Yumi asked.

"He—he—he—" She panted.

"He used flirting as a weapon…"

"Y—ye—ye—"

"…and devirtualized you when you were in frozen shock." She hugged her friend.

**-In the lab-**

"Aelita, Odd, William's heading straight for you!" Jeremie lost all hope. "It's all over!"

**-Back on Lyoko-**

Odd and Aelita were trying to get rid of the Tarantulas. "Great. It was already hard enough without William," Odd got hit by one of them then led it away. "This way, sweetie pie!"

It clunked after him into the rocks. He jumped off and landed on one. He was ready for it. Then he jumped from rock to rock. "You're going to have to do better than that!"

The Tarantula clunked over, found him, and tried to shoot at Odd, but missed. He got away.

Odd ran behind the rocks and got close to the enemy.

He decided to use the casual approach when the Tarantula was distracted.

"Hey! I bet you can't climb either!" Odd climbed up a rock and used the opportunity to taunt. "Don't tell me that you're not even going to try!"

Suddenly his OverBoard came up from behind him. He had to time this just right, so he jumped, landed on his vehicle, leaped off, launched a laser arrow at the Tarantula, and landed on his vehicle again.

He had to get back so he turned around.

**-Ulrich and Sissi's cliff hang-**

"Ulrich, you're going to fall if you don't let me go. Go on!" Sissi whined.

Ulrich strained to hold on. "Don't be silly, Sissi. We're both going to get out of this. You'll see."

The William clone jumped up onto the roof.

**-At the Lab-**

"Hurry up, will ya?" Yumi hastened to Jeremie.

Cassidy was sitting in a corner, embarrassed and ashamed that she had gotten flirted with again.

Jeremie worked on the program. It showed a green plus.

"Oh, I did it!" Jeremie said in glee.

Yumi was happy too.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

Aelita swooped around to avoid getting hit by lasers. "Bravo, Jeremie. One last thing to take care of and I'm in!"

She charged an energy field and landed to hit it. She succeeded and breathed a relieved sigh when William came up from behind her and hit her with a smoke.

It sent her sprawling on the sandy ground and she came to a skidding stop near the edge of the sector.

**-Back to the lab-**

Yumi, Cassidy, and Jeremie watched in direct horror.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

In a daze, Aelita came to. She looked behind her as the smoke started up in William's hand.

Aelita was almost stuck when…

"BANZAI!" Odd yelled and rammed his OverBoard into William. Then possessed boy, board, and wildcard boy fell to the ground.

She took the chance to race to the tower.

**-Back to Ulrich and Sissi-**

Ulrich tried to hold onto the gutter.

The clone hovered over him and Sissi.

**-Lyoko-**

Odd shook off the fall then saw William. "Oh, sorry, William. I forgot to put on the brakes."

William devirtualized Odd then saw Aelita making her way to the tower and going inside.

He growled.

Aelita made her way to the interface on the second platform.

**-With Ulrich and Sissi-**

William was about to pry Ulrich's hand.

**-Back to the tower-**

Placing a hand on the screen, she was ready to deactivate the tower.

AELITA

It blinked three or four times. Then it said

CODE

Aelita typed the code.

LYOKO

**-Rooftop-**

The clone disappeared.

Ulrich and Sissi looked.

"Ulrich, we're safe."

The gutter started to bend.

"I'm not so sure about that!" Ulrich wasn't too sure.

**-At the lab-**

Jeremie typed on the program.

**-Ulrich-**

The gutter snapped.

**-Back to the lab-**

"Return to the past, NOW!"

**-Ulrich and Sissi-**

Ulrich and Sissi fell.

**-Back to the lab-**

The white light filled in gently and covered all of earth.

**-Back to the cafeteria-**

"It seems to me, that as the principal's daughter, I'm the most obvious choice," Sissi said.

"That's true. That's a great idea," Odd clapped for her.

"Huh?"

Ulrich stepped in. "Yeah! We need someone who is unselfish and never thinks about herself, and Sissi really fits that description."

Odd, Jeremie, Aelita, Yumi, and Cassidy nodded in agreement.

Sissi was confused. "What are you six up to anyway?"

"It's unanimous then, huh?" Odd turned to the other students who were confused.

Jim came over. "Okay, what's going on here? Time to go to class, go on."

"We know, Jim. We just elected Sissi as monitor of the rec. room," Ulrich defended.

Jim was confused. "You did. Well, I thought you would choose someone like…Dunbar. Yeah. Right, I can see him!"

The clone was confused. "But how could you not see me? I'm right in front of you."

Everyone had a laugh. Odd thought his sides would burst. "That William's such a comedian!"

"He must be the funniest kid at Kadic," Ulrich and Cassidy agreed.

"Yeah, why?" William clone was confused.

"Forget about it. Come on, let's go to class," Yumi said.

As they walked off, Aelita whispered, "Well the copy's all we got!"

"For now, anyway," Jeremie said. "Back to Square 1. I'll bring William back one day!"

They all went back to class.


	47. The Skidbladnir is Born!

**There's going to be a new vehicle in the Lyoko roster.**

**I don't own Code Lyoko. I only own Cassidy. This will be a halves-ys episode, half-episode, half-game.**

**-At the lab at night-**

Jeremie and Aelita were typing. Odd was playing ball with himself. Cassidy was sleeping in a corner far away from the action.

"No, William, not me!" Cassidy whimpered.

Odd stopped playing and went over to her. "Shh…He's not here. It's over," he whispered as he gently rubbed her back.

Almost like a spell, she calmed down.

He made sure she was not dreaming of the incident, and then went back to playing his game.

"Okay, the connecting blocks have all been configured. Now we have to compile the structural intermediate data." Jeremie typed on the supercomputer, and then turned to Aelita. "Did you scan the random distortion components?"

She was typing on his laptop. "It's done!"

"Okay, I'm programming the," something, "vectors to browse the dipolar coordinates."

Odd threw the ball. "Jeremie, how's the virtual submarine going? I can't wait to go on a XANA hunt."

The ball flew passed Jeremie's head. He was able to dodge. "ODD!"

He shushed him. "You don't want to wake up our sleeping beauties and our resident psychic."

Ulrich and Yumi were sleeping, but more closely to where the action was.

"The coordinates have been recognized by the supercomputer," Aelita said.

Jeremie was prideful. "That's great teamwork, huh, Aelita? I couldn't have done it without your help or Cassidy's."

She kept typing. "The programming is complete. Time to launch the construction phase, I'm ready."

"Just a few more seconds and I'll be all set, too."

Yumi woke first and turned to Ulrich. She flinched back with a slight gasp as he yawned.

"William, not the face! God forbid, not the hair!" Cassidy whimpered in her sleep.

She crawled softly to her, cradled her, and whispered calmly, "He's gone. He's not going to flirt with you. It's over. Shh…"

Cassidy calmed down again, but woke up. "I—"

Yumi put a hand up to smooth her hair. "I know. You dreamt of that day."

"I hate that dream," she got up and hugged Yumi.

"I know." She hugged back and slowly but nicely rubbed her friend's back.

"Okay, I'm ready. Now?" Jeremie asked Aelita.

"Yeah, now!" she pressed the enter key and he did, too.

A room popped up on Jeremie's screen.

**-In this new room-**

Five docking mechanisms showed up in this new room.

**-Back to the lab-**

"Hey, what's that room? It's new to me," Yumi walked up with Cassidy.

"It's new to everyone," Jeremie replied.

"Minus me because of my visions," Cassidy was shamefaced.

"Aelita just programmed it into the Core Zone. We'll use it as a kind of hangar for our sub."

Odd came in. "We've gotta christen it, give it a name."

"We don't christen it until construction is over, Odd," Cassidy yawned a bit, feeling some of the aftermath of her nightmare on her.

"Cassidy is right," Jeremie nodded. "But nothing says we can't give it a code name."

"I suggest VS, you know, for virtual sub or virtual ship," She raised her hand up.

"Nah, what about Melanie!" Odd disagreed.

"Melanie? You mean that redhead you're so mad about?" Aelita teased.

Ulrich joined her. "You have a crush on a girl that reminds you of a submarine?"

Odd frowned.

Yumi walked to the elevator. "You know, it's pretty late. Why don't we talk about it while we're walking?"

The construction was on the screen.

**-On the walk-**

"The rest of the calculations should keep working by themselves until the afternoon," Jeremie said.

"By then the atomic layers of the subatomic structure will be complete," Aelita continued.

"At four P.M. sharp, Aelita will launch phase two of the programming operation of the construction of the core. And we're going to have to be on time, because if we're not the kinetic dipolar distortion energy will enter into a dangerous and destructive chromaldynamic sinusoidal phase," Jeremie said after that.

"English, please," Cassidy rubbed her temples.

Aelita smiled. "If we're not in the factory by four…"

"Wait a second, I had a flashback months ago that had me sleeping beside Yumi, and then having Aelita said something close those words," Ulrich was getting excited.

"Yeah, so?" Odd asked.

"It totally makes sense to me now," he yelled.

Cassidy was a bit confused, but then remembered. "Oh…when we all first met and were only short by one member."

"Yeah? And who would that be?" Yumi was curious.

"You, of course. We can't have the Lyoko Warriors without you, Yumi," she smiled. "Five of us or three of us, or two of us just isn't _us_. Us is all six!"

"Right."

Aelita continued again, "If we're not in the factory by four, the core will collapse into itself, kinda like a black hole."

"Uh…are you saying that Melanie will be destroyed?" Odd was scared of that possibility.

"Yeah, it sure will," Jeremie adjusted his glasses. "And it's going to take months before we can reprogram it. Months during which XANA can continue doing his dirty work without any interference from us."

"I can not agree with you more, Jeremie," Cassidy nodded.

"Jeremie and I still have some technical stuff to work on before we go to sleep."

**-This is where the game comes in; the next morning-**

After breakfast, Cassidy spotted Mrs. Hertz. _Hm__…__I __wonder __how __I __did __on __my __last __test._

With her friends, she went up to her.

"Leave me alone!" Mrs. Hertz snapped.

"What's wrong, Mrs. Hertz," Aelita asked.

"It's you, you! I can't take it anymore. I haven't slept all week because of you students! You're in my nightmares. I'm all alone in front of you, thousands of you, right there. You're looking at me with your vicious little eyes and your pointy little teeth, like vampires." Mrs. Hertz was not having a good day.

Cassidy nodded. "I've been having nightmares too, most of it pink and purple with a yellowish white center and a bright light as if I was in a movie theater with Pink and purple walls and flooring in zero gravity."

"Hey, me too! I had a nightmare last night, as well," Odd smiled. "Kiwi had turned into a giant and he was flying around the sky dropping poisoned meatballs. And there I was, swimming around in an ocean of fish batter, but I couldn't drown…the stuff was too thick."

"Hmm! Leave me alone!" Mrs. Hertz ordered.

_Gee, __and __I __couldn__'__t __find __out __my __stinking __test __grade? __That __stinks,_ Cassidy almost growled.

They left the teacher and found Tamiya. "Hey, do you know where Sissi is?"

"I think she's in the shower, Tamiya," Cassidy creased a brow. "Why? Is anything wrong?"

Milly walked up. "She's supposed to be in our interview for the day."

"A Day in the Life of Sissi Delmas," Cassidy said the headline out strongly.

"Yeah, but how'd you know…" Tamiya gasped. "Your powers…are they, are they true?"

"No, no, just paying attention after the last issue: A Day in the Life of Maetina de Coullier."

Milly and Tamiya nodded and walked off.

"You know, one of these days, Milly and Tamiya are going to find out about them," Odd told Cassidy.

"Aw, take a walk, Odd!" she whined.

Odd shrugged in a defeated gesture. "Okay."

"Della Robbia," Jim gave Odd the eye and flipped his head back.

He walked over to him. "Yes, Jim?"

"Della Robbia, how's our little secret doing?" Jim asked.

"Oh, well, no problem, Jim. All locked up, and I threw away the key." He smiled. "Nobody will hear a word about Paco: the King of Dis…"

Jim threw a hand over Odd's mouth. "Shhhhh…for God's sake, Della Robbia, not so loud! There are people around. And I don't want news spreading about my acting career."

Hervé saw Ulrich.

"Say, you haven't seen Sissi, by any chance," He asked him. "I did all her homework and have to give it to her before chemistry class."

"No idea," Ulrich smiled.

"Really? Sissi, where are you?" Hervé went off to try and find his love.

"A real slave," Ulrich whispered to Cassidy.

"A real slave _in __love_, Ulrich. He's been crushing on Sissi ever since she probably moved here," Cassidy corrected. "Come on; let's head over to the factory now. Jeremie is probably waiting for us."

Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd agreed.

**-At the factory-**

Jeremie was relieved, even though exhausted. "There you are! Finally!"

"Hi Jeremie," Ulrich greeted.

"I hope you have good news," Yumi said.

"It is."

"Spit it out, Einstein. What is it," Odd said.

"Our vehicle is nearly ready," Aelita replied.

Cassidy nodded, even though she looked a bit weak.

"That sporadic nightmare?" Yumi noticed her tired disheveled look.

"It jumped me last night. I swear, it's as if it's a Soc to a freaking Greaser," She growled.

Jeremie came between them. "Stay calm."

"We need to go to Sector 5 to protect VS, right?" She cooled down.

"Get to the scanner room, I'll start the procedure. All five of you are going," he smiled.

**-In Sector 5-**

William was on his way to the new North Pole of the Celestial Dome with the help of his Mantas. Soon he was in the new room. He circled around until he jumped off and landed. **"****Attack!****"** he ordered.

The Creepers there looked to each other and did what he said onto the new vehicle.

**-In the scanner room-**

Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, Aelita, and Cassidy were waiting.

Odd and Ulrich went into the scanners first.

"_Are you two ready? Here we go! Transfer, Ulrich, transfer, Odd. Scanner, Ulrich, scanner, Odd. Virtualization."_

Ulrich and Odd were sent to Sector 5.

Just to tease, Odd checked himself. "Two arms, two legs, one head, one tail, all present and accounted for, Einstein."

"_Go protect Melanie!"_

The two ran into the new corridor. _"__Keep __going __until __you __guys __reach __the __access __hall. __Then __take __a __platform __elevator __to __the __hangar.__"_

When they got there, they were completely amazed. "Wow," Odd said.

The place looked really cool. "Aelita did a fantastic job!"

"_Thanks,__"_ Aelita sounded from the lab.

The two ran to the edge of the platform and stopped perfectly. From above, an elevator came down to them.

Odd took a moment to marvel at the magnificent work the three did, then Ulrich said, "Here we go!"

The two walked on. As soon as they were on, the elevator shot upward and whisked the two up to the hangar.

"Jeremie, we're almost at the hangar," Ulrich told him.

"_That's great."_

The two saw the new vehicle.

"You grab William's attention, and I'll handle the Creepers," Odd told the plan.

Ulrich nodded to the plan.

The elevator squeaked and squealed.

As soon as it stopped. It was just Ulrich and William. "Yo, big shot."

William looked to him.

He hopped back twice. "Ya wanna mix it up a little?" He unsheathed two katanas.

The two went to battle, William slicing with his zabanto, and Ulrich dodging.

Odd, on the other hand, was underneath a platform, crawling underneath and onto the other side of the battle. He swung on.

The Creeper looked to him.

"Laser Arrow," Odd yelled.

He got one right on the eye symbol, then jumped back as the two Creepers started to shoot. Then he came right back.

Back with William and Ulrich's battle, the two were going at it like two mad cats on washing day.

Ulrich met an edge and had to use a beam as a balance to stem William.

He sideswiped him and tried to cut him. The armbands on the enemy helped shield the blow. The samurai boy paused a little, but that was a costly mistake. The rival kicked him in the stomach, throwing Ulrich off balance. He flipped back as William got to his feet.

"**Mantas,****"** ordered the prisoner of XANA.

Three Mantas came into play.

Odd tried to do a number on the Creepers but back-flipped twice. On the second back-flip he saw the monsters coming in.

He recovered. "That's all we needed, XANA's air force."

"_Try __to __hold __them __off,__"_ Jeremie said.

The Mantas and the two Creepers started to fire upon the poor undeveloped vehicle.

Ulrich tried to duke it out with William. He kicked at him but William bent backward to dodge the blow. He then went back a few feet. Ulrich threw his katana, but William dodged and it skewered into one of the docking mechanisms.

Odd, meanwhile, had gotten rid of a Creeper, and had to swing around and round on a beam to avoid getting hit by the last Creeper.

Meanwhile the fray between Ulrich and William was still going on. As if a scorpion, the zabanto-wielding was poised to strike. But Ulrich managed to dodge and pushed him over the edge.

He flipped up and went to check it out.

Just then, William's Manta (With his owner on it) struck him in the stomach. Ulrich got up to see that he lost one of his four katanas.

"Jeremie, we need backup. We can't go it alone!" Ulrich said.

**-Back in the lab-**

"The submarine shields are getting weaker, Jeremie," Cassidy nodded. "Come on, let the girls help."

**-Back to the battle: Ulrich vs. William-**

William landed on a circular spot of blue and white and readied his zabanto.

He tried to attack, but Ulrich elbowed him in the gut and kicked him in the chest.

William showed a look of menace.

Meanwhile, Odd was still looping around on the pole he was hanging on to until he balanced on another beam and onto the platform in front of another Creeper. One shot was all it took to get rid of it.

"They're just like sitting ducks, uh…sitting Creepers that is!" Odd cracked.

A laser connected to his side, causing him to lie down a little. He looked up and flipped up when he saw one of the Mantas.

He distracted it, hung off the edge of the platform a little but flipped back up and shot at the monster.

He then looked up and shot up at another.

Meanwhile, and seeing that his other katana was still embedded in the docking mechanism's arm, Ulrich sought his chance, jumped up, grabbed his weapon, pushed off, and cut William in the shoulder.

Then William tried to slice him but he blocked with his katana, joined with another from his backpack.

"You're not going to win, William," Ulrich grunted. "You better let your master know!"

_Epic __words, __Ulrich. __Yo __no __sabía __que __tú __tenías __en __ti,_ Cassidy's words frolicked around his head.

_SHUT IT!_

William growled.

**-To the lab-**

Cassidy, Aelita, and Yumi made it to the scanner room, waiting.

"_Get __ready, __only __eight __minutes __to __go!__"_ Jeremie told the girls.

"Esperé esto por mucho tiempo," Cassidy was ready.

**-To Odd's battle-**

"Come on over here, sweetie. I'm going to need you," Odd beckoned as he jumped on one of the Mantas and fired on the target.

"_Ulrich, __Odd, __back-up __is __on __the __way,__"_ Jeremie told them.

"Great! Things were heating up around here," he said as he flew through the air.

The Manta was close. "Oh, no!"

He was hit in the chest and devirtualized.

**-In the scanner room-**

Odd came out of the scanner, walked a few paces, and then sat down.

**-Back to the Lyoko battle-**

William panted.

His Manta fired and shot Ulrich's chest. He was about to land a devastating blow when a fan shot through the air and landed on him, making him drop his zabanto.

It came to Yumi.

Ulrich stood up. "It's a pleasure to see you three again, ladies!"

"It's always nice to feel needed isn't it," Yumi smiled.

"The scanners overheated a little, that's why us girls didn't make it," Cassidy nodded. "You okay, Ulrich?"

"I'm fighting your ex, what does it look like?" He scowled a little.

"Hey, you didn't go through a mission getting flirted at," Cassidy was a bit ashamed.

**-Back to the Lab-**

"It's about time. Do you realize it's only five minutes to four," Odd pointed at his watch.

"I know, Odd, I know. Only five minutes to run Melanie's core program," Jeremie kept typing like he had been doing this whole time. "But even more important, all of her protection shields are just about down to zero."

**-Back to the action-**

Yumi, Aelita, and Cassidy defended against the only Manta left. Ulrich defended against William.

Ulrich slashed and slashed, but William dodged. At one point he slapped his hand and the katana landed in his grip. There was only one thing left and that was to devirtualize him. He stabbed Ulrich through the stomach.

After, William collected his zabanto and jumped on Melanie/VS's structure.

With a mighty blow, he struck the ship. It sent a shockwave down through the stem.

"_Hurry, __ladies, __the __sub __only __has __7% __of __its __life __points __left,__"_ Jeremie warned.

The laser fired, scattering the three girls. Yumi tried a fan on it, but it dodged. Then Cassidy tried a bullet, but it dodged again. Finally, Aelita tried an energy field that hit the beast dead center. "Energy Field."

"Nice one, Aelita," Cassidy complimented.

"_Yumi, __Cassidy, __Aelita, __the __sub __shield __is __almost __totally __gone. __One __more __hit __and __it__'__s __all __over __for __Melanie!__"_ Jeremie said.

Now the Lyoko Warrior girls' attention was directed at William.

Yumi tried with her fans but he deflected them. Cassidy shot twice with her bullets, but he dodged while staying on Melanie/VS.

Then Aelita charged up a huge colossal energy field and fired. "Energy field."

It hit him and he disappeared.

Aelita panted. That one energy field exhausted her.

"Are you okay, Aelita," Cassidy and Yumi worried over their roommate and friend.

Aelita straightened up.

**-With Odd and Jeremie-**

"3:59:45, 46, 47…" Odd counted on his watch.

Jeremie pressed enter. "It's done. The programming for phase two is underway!"

**-Cassidy, Yumi, and Aelita-**

Cassidy, Yumi, and Aelita did a three-person high-five. "YEAH!"

"LO HICIMOS!" Cassidy smiled.

The vehicle re-strengthened its shield. And little mini-pods were added. Two of them looked to have doubled seating.

"Jeremie, our ship is finally completed," Aelita told him.

**-In the elevator-**

Ulrich had a headache as he came out of the elevator into the lab.

He joined Jeremie's other side.

"Wow, close call for Melanie, huh," Odd smiled as did the others.

**-Later…at the Hermitage-**

"But…Melanie's a great name. Why don't we keep it?" Odd asked.

Cassidy gave a short swift shake of her head. "Keep your ex-girlfriend names to yourself or heck; write them up in a novel somewhere."

"It's a nice name for a girl, but not a submarine," Yumi agreed with Cassidy.

"Well, for a ship that's gonna hunt down XANA on the network, we need a name that's got some punch, don't you think?" Jeremie came in. "Like…um…Nautilus for example."

"Hmm…that's pretty original!" Odd sarcastically whipped.

**-With Aelita's father's study-**

The argument was able to go through walls. _"__Find __a __better __one, __then,__"_ Jeremie spat back at Odd.

"_Aelita, __are __you __coming,__"_ Ulrich asked.

"Um, I'll be right there," Aelita said.

She swore she could hear a smack and an _"__Allow __Aelita __to __take __her __time, __Ulrich. __That __was __so __un-cool!__"_

She picked out the book that she was looking for, and then went to the living room. "My father used to read me this book when I was five."

"Viking Gods and Legends," Jeremie read the title off the spine.

She opened the book to the right page and showed him the story. "Look at that! It was a mythical tall ship that could even sail on land and it always reached its destination, no matter what kind of wind was blowing."

"Does it say in there that the ship could be folded and put into a pocket?" Cassidy asked.

"Yes!" Aelita answered confidently.

"The Skidbladnir?" Jeremie questioned the title.

Odd had a hard time spitting the word out. "What?"

"I really like that name," Yumi inputted.

"Definitely better than Melanie or VS," Cassidy agreed.

Ulrich had to insert his two pennies. "Yeah, I like it, too."

"Okay, our new ship's name is Skidbladnir!" Jeremie smiled.

"Skid. What about Skid, for short?" Odd asked.

Everyone had a right to cheer. "YAY!"


	48. We take off for that Maiden Voyage!

**If everything's okay, we can head off for that maiden voyage.**

**I don't own Code Lyoko, but I do own my OC.**

**-Gym class-**

"For those not familiar with the sport, rock climbing is a noble discipline, which can carry you to great heights," Jim explained. "A good climber commands both mind and body."

The next two or three sentences was lost on Cassidy. _Oh…kay?_

"And so, don't forget that by challenging yourselves can you move mountains and, might I add, climb them." He then pointed to her. "McGuire, get up there. See if you're up to the challenge."

The girl was shocked. _He knows I have a fear of heights and haven't gotten over it!_

Two hands pushed her. "Go on," Ulrich breathed. "You helped me before, now go!"

She started to sweat but regrettably walked up to the wall. She froze. In competition she was fine, but alone she was a sitting duck crossed with a groundhog that just saw its shadow.

"Come on!" Jim roared. "It can't be that hard to climb a wall!"

She gulped, grabbing at the grips, and climbed a small ways up the wall. A vein in her neck throbbed. _You're committing your death, moron,_ her brain scolded.

Odd knew something was up. "Ulrich, you know Cassidy hates to climb that thing. She has heights issues."

Ulrich looked in shock. "I didn't know that! Odd, why didn't you or Cassidy say that to me?" He ran up underneath where Cassidy froze.

Suddenly, a force inside her head threw her off guard. It was as if someone put her in a wind tunnel without any protection. She felt her hands loosen. Her heart tried to keep up. And she fell into Ulrich's arms.

"McGuire!" Jim yelled.

With some difficulty, Ulrich carried her to his coach. "I'm sorry, Jim. She has heights issues."

Jim then picked… "Belpois, get up there. See if you're up to the challenge."

Jeremie was shocked, but did as Jim said.

"This will be the practical part of today's lesson."

He took a moment to look up at the wall.

"Go on," Jim encouraged.

_Where was that for Cassidy, huh,_ Odd thought a little growly.

Jeremie started to climb up the wall with difficulty.

"What's the matter? Pull up with your arms and push up with your legs. Do you have chewing gum for muscles or what?" Jim taunted.

Cassidy woke. "What's going on, guys?" she asked, confused.

Odd looked to her confused. "Did you black out or something on that wall?"

"I—I think so." She blushed. "Is something going on?"

Ulrich put her on her feet.

Jeremie froze a little.

Aelita started to pray.

Jeremie kept going until he felt a spot with no grip. He fell off.

"Of course the only exercise you do is clicking your computer mouse and not conquer anything," Jim taunted when he landed. "Della Robbia, show your buddy how it's done."

Jeremie walked off with a sad look on his face. Odd walked by, then looked back as they passed. Aelita tried to give some encouragement, but he was sulky.

Cassidy was still a bit out of it, so she was of no help.

**-Later, at the cafeteria-**

Jeremie was in a bad sulk.

Aelita and the others were swayed by this.

Their clothes changed. Yumi's apparel was slightly lighter but still mainly black, consisting of a long-sleeved shirt with an extra large neck hole. On one corner of the shirt were three light blue stars. Her pants cut off halfway between her ankles and knees. Her shoes were pinkish reddish sneakers. She also was wearing a reddish bracelet on one wrist.

Ulrich traded in his vest and green shirt-coat with a black shirt and army jacket, his white shoes were replaced with black shoes, and his cargo pants were replaced with blue jeans. It still kept his earth tone style.

Aelita switched to a dark purple dress that came to her knees and light pink quarter-length leggings underneath. Her deep red boots donned some pink puff balls, four on each side.

Jeremie decided to change out his turtleneck with a red long-sleeve shirt, and had brown pants with light blue stripes going down the side of the legs, and dark blue shoes.

Cassidy was wearing a pink shirt with some purple bellbottom pants that she had "borrowed" from Odd (he told her, "Just keep them!") Strangely they were just her size. ("And I'm both taller than you, Odd, and have no waist.") She replaced her tiger-striped shoes with pink and blue ones.

Odd's outfit consisted of a purple hooded sweatshirt with a pink shirt underneath, purple bellbottoms, and dark red-orange shoes.

"It's no big deal, Jeremie," Aelita said.

Cassidy was trying to figure out what the hell happened when she was on the wall with Yumi. "One minute I was on the wall, the next I woke up in your novio's arms. I don't know what happened."

"Your powers have been acting weird lately," Yumi said.

"Yeah, nowadays whenever my powers start acting the rat but don't white out my eyes, they…I don't know. One time I remember waking up in the hallway, but no one was around," she shrugged. "Either it has something to do with my dream that I keep having, or my powers are weakening."

Suddenly, she growled. "Sissi's coming."

As if on cue, Sissi and Hervé came up.

Sissi ditched her heart shirt, headband and pants to put on a pink-like shirt, clips, and blue pants with reddish-purple shoes.

Hervé found himself a striped Tee-Dee sweater vest.

"Well, sourpuss, having a hard time lifting your brain with those string-bean arms?"

Jeremie looked to Cassidy. "Cassidy, do you mind?"

"Don't have one this time. Odd?" Cassidy asked.

"Aelita, I hate to talk with my mouth full. Would you mind taking over?" Odd turned to Aelita.

Aelita smiled. "Sissi, your head is so full of helium you can float to the top."

That sent the whole table laughing.

Hervé laughed too. "Sometimes, I wonder if you don't actually ask for it!"

"Shut up, you dork!" Sissi said, and walked off with a scoff.

"What happened with him?" Yumi asked Ulrich.

"He scaled the rock wall in gym. Cassidy did, too, but blacked out," Ulrich informed.

She almost laughed. "Okay, enough said."

"I don't believe it. I can't be that bad in every single sport," Jeremie sounded down.

Aelita tried to soothe. "Of course not. Actually, no, you really are lame at anything athletic."

Her knight in glasses glared at her a little.

"Anyway, who cares? You can't be a champion at everything," Aelita consoled.

Cassidy nodded in agreement.

"Come on, Einstein, stop sulking. Listen, if you want, we can try scaling the wall together," Odd said with a mouth full of food.

Jeremie felt even more down. "Do you think I have time for that monkey business? I have too much work to do."

Yumi nodded her agreement. "That's for sure; you, Cassidy, and Aelita spend all of your time shut up in that computer lab. What are you three working on?"

"We're ironing out the final kinks on the Skid," Aelita answered, glass in hand.

"You're still on that. I thought it was done," Ulrich was amazed.

"Ulrich, traveling through the network isn't exactly taking a stroll through Lyoko," Jeremie reprimanded.

Cassidy nearly fell asleep on her hands.

"That's it! You're going home with me tonight!" Yumi ordered the exhausted girl.

"And plus the digital sea is a complete mystery!" Jeremie continued. "For all we know, the Skid could disintegrate during its first dive."

Odd still had a mouthful of food. "Well, that's reassuring." He then noticed Jeremie didn't touch his food. "You going to eat that?"

"Go ahead," was the dry reply.

Cassidy had finished her lunch early.

Odd pulled the tray towards him. "Cool!"

"You know, Jeremie, we're going to have to test it out one day if we want to take on XANA," Yumi smiled.

Delmas was trying to talk. "I said quiet down."

There was some elevated chatter.

"Quiet, I said!" he tried again.

"Mr. Delmas said quiet down, and that means now!" Jim ordered.

It quieted the whole room.

"Ahem, thank you, Jim," Mr. Delmas said.

"It's no problem, Delmas. Always glad to help," Jim smiled on.

"Yes of course," Delmas noted. "In case you have forgotten, let me remind you that today is FSRP Day…"

The two also donned new outfits.

Jim lost his jacket and now had a sweater with Kadic's K on the left chest and gray sweatpants with red lines along the sides and waistband.

Mr. Delmas found himself a yellow-orange jacket that covered a greenish sweater. He also donned brown pants.

"…which stands for Fire Safety, Risk, and Prevention, so all afternoon classes have been canceled."

_Wait a minute. My grandfather from my mother's side is a firefighter,_ Cassidy thought.

There was a roar of applause.

"And so as I was saying, children, your classes have been canceled, but part of this time will be devoted to a complete building evacuation exercise. This drill is designed to make absolutely certain that you are familiar with our security procedures-procedures you will need to know by heart. It goes without saying that all access to the buildings will be prohibited during the exercise. Therefore…" Mr. Delmas said.

"Yumi's right, ya know," Aelita said. "We better make a trial run in the Skid just to see how it works."

Jeremie wasn't as convinced. "Yeah but I don't know if we're ready yet."

"We have to try it out before XANA gets even more powerful," Ulrich said.

"…Thank you for your attention."

Aelita smiled.

Cassidy looked half-exhausted, but nodded.

Jeremie saw that there was no other option. "Okay. We'll take advantage of the safety drill to get over to the computer lab."

"Way to go, Jeremie," Aelita said.

"Yeah, cool," Ulrich smiled, as did Odd.

"Listen up! This is only a trial run to check out the launch procedures," Jeremie ordered.

"Relax, we'll just dive, test it, and come back," Odd smiled.

**-In the Lab a few minutes later-**

Jeremie showed a piece of paper with a diagram on it. "As we all know, Lyoko is made up of five sectors…"

"Forest, Mountain, Ice, Desert, and Sector 5," Cassidy inputted, blinking a little.

"These sectors are actually located in the center of some sort of giant hollow sphere. Imagine an enormous virtual bubble suspended by a sort of liquid element. This liquid element is the World Information Network."

"And the digital sea?" Yumi asked.

Cassidy cringed. Harsh memories of the day she fell and several close calls swarmed around her head.

"The digital sea is apart of the network," Aelita smiled. "It's a kind of overflow that is accessible through this sort of floodgate. XANA goes through this floodgate to attack us on Lyoko and the Skid will use this very same gate to get us out."

Ulrich showed an angry determined look. "And once we're off Lyoko, what then?"

"Well, imagine you'll be in some kind of immense network of tunnels, but I don't have enough data to tell you exactly what you'll find." Jeremie smiled. "It'll be a surprise."

"That's fabulous," Odd smiled; his roommate's elbow rested on his shoulder. "I love surprises. Well, what are we waiting for?"

Cassidy nodded, smiling a little.

He started to walk off.

"Hang on, Odd. I haven't even explained about configuring the parameters of the engines or the procedure of transferring virtual mass, or—or," Jeremie panicked.

"Don't bother," he said confidently as he punched in the code to the elevator (7130√51). "We'll work it out as we go along. Nothing like hands-on experience."

The elevator opened up as the five started to walk to it.

"But—"

Aelita cut in. "Jeremie, don't worry. I'll be there with them." She walked with them, waving a small good-bye.

Jeremie was worried, regardless of his sweetheart's good-natured "don't worry".

The five went down to the scanner room.

_"You there yet? I'll start up the process,"_ Jeremie said when they were all there.

Ulrich and Odd bowed. "Ladies first," Ulrich told them.

Cassidy staggered into her scanner.

Odd took concern for her. "Are you sure you want to go with us? There might be another time."

She nodded. "Nightmare or no nightmare, I want to go for this one."

The doors closed.

_"Transfer, Aelita, transfer, Yumi, transfer, Cassidy. Scanner, Aelita, scanner, Yumi, scanner, Cassidy. Virtualization."_

The three were sent to Sector 5. Cassidy felt instantly better. "There we go. I don't know why but I always feel better when I go to Lyoko."

"It's okay, Jeremie, it's all quiet here," Yumi assured.

_"Virtualization."_

Odd and Ulrich dropped in.

_"Your elevator's waiting,"_ Jeremie said.

They went to the access hall and paused for a little bit.

Aelita took the lead, and the others followed until she came to a stop. The elevator dropped down for them and stopped. All five walked on. Cassidy couldn't stop reverberating with excitement. _Our first Skidbladnir trip,_her thoughts repeated.

"It's beautiful, huh?" Yumi whispered to Ulrich.

"Fantastic," Ulrich breathed with a smile.

"Einstein, we made it to the Skid hangar," Odd said. "Now what do we do?"

The elevator stopped when it reached the top. The five started to run off.

_"Each of you, get on a teleport spot, one of you will have to share a double pod."_

Cassidy raised her hand. "I'll share with Yumi, if that's okay with you."

Yumi smiled. "It's okay."

The five were on a teleport spot.

Odd was curious. "Well, who's driving?"

Aelita turned to him. "I am, of course."

**-Back at the lab-**

Jeremie typed on the keys. "Are you guys ready? Energize!"

**-Back to Lyoko-**

Bright, white columns flashed up from the teleport spots.

Aelita energized into the captain's hub. She looked around while grabbing two thrusters. "Wow, it's working, Jeremie. Everything's in place, according to plan."

Typing on a pad at her left, she said, "Opening interface."

Three blue screens popped up for her. "Cockpit to NavSkids, do you copy?"

"Loud and clear, Aelita," Yumi and Cassidy chorused.

"Loud and clear, Aelita," Ulrich came in shortly after.

"Me, too. This is cool. It's like being in a spaceship," Odd was very awed.

Ulrich came in with this warning, "Yeah, but be careful, Odd. This isn't Galactic Invaders."

"Yeah, yeah. You're just jealous because I wiped out three times as many aliens as you did last night," Odd smarted.

"Because you cheated, as usual," Ulrich smarted back.

Cassidy and Yumi were in the middle-top NavSkid, overhearing it all. "This is definitely the reason why I don't think they should be paired up in a double," the former grumbled to the latter.

_"Okay, if you guys are done blabbering, maybe we can get on with the job,"_ Jeremie warned warmly.

"Standing by, Jeremie," Aelita said.

_"Okay, now. Get ready for lift-off. Releasing supports."_

The support lights went off and released.

Aelita pressed a red button on her left and grasped the thruster. "We have ignition, powering vertical."

On the outside on the wings of the Skidbladnir, four little engines went from the side to the top of a sort of C. Virtual fire shot down from both.

Inside the cockpit, Aelita took a deep breath. "For you, Daddy. Lift-off!"

The Skid shot up through the North Pole.

_"All indicators are go; you guys are cleared for leaving Sector 5,"_ Jeremie told them.

"Roger," Aelita said.

The Skid made a sweep around the Dome.

_"Tunnel open in two seconds,"_ Jeremie told them.

Aelita smiled when it did and moved the left thruster to make it go to the direction. Then she moved both of them forward to go through the tunnel. Soon, they were several feet above the digital sea.

"It's working, Jeremie, our Skid is working!" Aelita celebrated.

"Great!" Yumi cheered.

**-Back in the lab-**

_"Nice work, Einstein,"_ Odd said.

Jeremie opened his can of soda proudly.

_"Great job, Aelita,"_ Ulrich praised.

_"We did a wonderful job,"_ Cassidy smiled.

He took a victory sip from the can.

"Good, the test was a success. Aelita, you all set to turn it around and go back into dry dock?" Jeremie asked.

_"What? No way,"_ Ulrich protested.

_"Hey, Einstein, I thought that we were supposed to test this thing,"_ Odd said.

"Yeah, well, that's what we did. We just finished a dry run," Jeremie told them.

_"A test of the digital sea,"_ Ulrich protested again. _"Otherwise what's the point?"_

**-In the cockpit of the Skidbladnir-**

Aelita agreed. "They're right, Jeremie. If we just stay up here in the sky on Lyoko, it isn't much of a trial run. Don't you want to see what the network looks like?"

**-Back in the lab-**

Jeremie looked at the can of soda in concern and let out a groan. "I feel like I'm going to regret this, but okay. Get ready to dive into the digital sea. Five minutes maximum!"

**-In the Skid-**

Odd let out a cheer. "Yeah!"

Cassidy came in after. "I knew we would get to look into the digital sea."

Aelita punched in something on the mini-keyboard on her left. "Okay, then. Shields, activated. Sonar, activated. Stabilizers, online and checked out. Primary access, clear. Laser generators, online." She grasped the left thruster again. "Cockpit to NavSkids, ready for a dive?"

Ulrich nodded. "Ready."

"Ready," confirmed Yumi.

"Lista, Aelita," Cassidy smiled.

"Anytime, Princess," Odd agreed.

**-Back in the lab-**

Jeremie gritted his teeth.

**-Back to the Skid-**

"Here we go!"

The Skid dove to the digital sea, hovered for a moment, and then went in.

**-Back in the lab-**

"Base lab to Skid. Do you read me?" Jeremie asked. When there was no answer he tried again. "Lab calling Skid. Aelita, come in, answer, please!"

He crushed his can in worry. Did he send all of his friends, one of whom a dangerous psychic, and his sweetheart, to their doom?

A few minutes later…

_"Skid to Base Lab."_

Jeremie relaxed and let out a sigh of relief. They were alive!

_"Jeremie, we're in the digital sea,"_ Aelita said.

"That's what I wanted to hear, Aelita," Jeremie smiled. "I nearly had a heart attack waiting. But I'm okay now."

**-With the Skid-**

The Skid went through the gate into the digital sea. It was a gorgeous bluish gray.

**-With Jeremie-**

Jeremie pressed a key. "Holoweb system, online."

**-Back to the Skid-**

_"Well, what does the network look like?"_ Jeremie asked.

Aelita took in the sights. "It's—it's beautiful! I'm sending you a visual, Jeremie."

She typed on the mini-keyboard.

**-Back to Jeremie-**

The visual showed up. It was a brilliant blue sea with a few blue-looking hubs.

"Wow," he whispered in amazement.

_"Yeah, you said it, Einstein,"_ Odd agreed.

**-Back to the Skid-**

In the cockpit of the Skid, Aelita said, "Rotation," and pulled a lever on her right.

Outside of the sub, the main body of the ship turned from vertical to horizontal.

**-Back to the lab-**

"Aelita, engage the turbo prop and auxiliary engines to break clear of Lyoko's gravity field, okay," Jeremie said.

**-Back to Skid-**

"Right, whatever you say. Turbo propeller, engaged." She pressed the center button and then the three surrounding ones.

The propeller drove the Skid out of the gravity zone. And so, the exploration began.

Everyone was in awe of the beautiful cobalt sea, even Cassidy.

"So much beautiful in person," she whispered to Yumi.

Odd was looking very amazed at all the interfaces and the beauty of it all.

**-Back to the genius at the lab-**

Jeremie set down his soda can after taking a drink from it. "Okay, that's it, you guys. Head for home."

Odd was first to protest. _"Aw…can't we stay here a little longer?"_

"I said five minutes, Odd. Aelita…"

_"Roger, Jeremie. Turning around."_

**-Back to the Skid-**

Aelita pressed the red button again and pulled a lever. "Starboard propulsion, engaged. Bearing 160."

The sub turned around to go back to Lyoko.

**-Back to the Lab-**

Jeremie was typing on the keys when several (!)'s showed up on his screens. That spooked him. "What's going on around here? Aelita, I don't know why but I seem to have lost all trace of you on my radar. It could be a transmission problem. Can you check it out?" He was getting worried.

**-In the Cockpit-**

Aelita typed on the mini-keyboard and saw two red areas near the cockpit and engine. "Jeremie, the navigation system doesn't respond. There's a bug into it.

**-In the Lab-**

Jeremie re-crushed his can in panic. "This can't be. Without a navigation system, you'll never find your way back to Lyoko. You'll be stuck, floating on the network until you use up all the Skid's power reserves."

_"And then what?"_ Yumi asked.

_"I'm fearing the worst on this one,"_ Cassidy fretted.

"Once the virtual energy is exhausted, the Skid will break up and you'll all end up in the digital sea for good," Jeremie started to fret.

_"WHAT?"_ Cassidy yelled, fear rising in her voice.

He cringed. He knew that she hated the digital sea.

**-Back to the Cockpit-**

"Eternal virtualization, like my father," Aelita whispered in a rueful voice.

_"Well, that's just great,"_ Ulrich sounded from his NavSkid.

In Odd's NavSkid, Odd was a little worried. "By the way, Einstein, I hope you got a solution because I didn't bring my bathing suit."

"I didn't survive all the way for this," Cassidy muttered to herself quaking in her virtual paws.

_"Yeah well, to get you guys out of there, I have to debug the system," _Jeremie told them. _"Except that there are several million codes to crack—by then you'll all be in the drink—unless…"_

Ulrich was about to yell. "Unless what?"

_"I've got subprograms that just might debug and repair the system. But I'll have to get them from my room."_

"Why didn't Cassidy get them this time?" Odd asked.

"Weak power," Cassidy was ashamed and scared at the same time.

_"And so, I'll have to leave you guys on your own for just a little moment."_

"Oh, that's cool Einstein," he shook his head. "You couldn't bring this stuff with you?"

_"Hey, I wasn't the one who insisted on doing this trial run, Odd! So just cool it, if you don't mind!"_ There was a snap in Jeremie's voice.

"If only I brought the disc, this wouldn't be a problem," Cassidy was shaking in the double pod.

In the cockpit, Aelita had grabbed both thrusters again. "It won't help to get all worked up. Hurry and get your CD-ROM. We'll wait here."

_"Okay, I'll be right back. Whatever you do, don't move from there."_

"Very funny!" Odd snapped.

"Odd, cool it," Cassidy sighed.

A few minutes later, the structures came into Odd's fancy. "Weird, it looks like an upside-down city."

"If you ask me, all these buildings are the networks interconnected databases," Aelita gave her opinion, and then had an idea. "Okay, why don't we turn on some light?" She tapped at purplish tabs.

After the tabs were tapped, the lights kicked on, one each on the wings and one on the front.

"Better, gracias, Aelita," Cassidy smiled.

"De nada," she replied.

**-With Jeremie-**

Jeremie pushed off the sewer cap, climbed out, replaced it, and started running for the school when…

"Belpois, what do you think you're doing here? Why aren't you with all of the other kids in the schoolyard, huh?" Jim ran up to him.

He looked behind the gym teacher then realized, "Darn it. Fire Safety Day. I forgot all about it, too, just my luck." He saw the fire engines and the officials.

"Go on, hurry up. If the principal sees you here, he's going to ring my bell."

"Yeah, but, I need to get something from my room. It'll just take a second."

"Oh, no, you don't. You were all warned this morning, and a warning in hand is worth two in the…bush league. Beat it," Jim pointed.

Jeremie walked a little ways while Jim walked the other way. But Jeremie Belpois was no quitter. Once he saw him go behind the corner, he ran past the gym teacher and firemen.

"Did I ever tell you about the time I fought forest fires?" Jim asked.

**-Back to the Skid-**

The Skid went past another hub.

"Hey, do you think we'll be able to see the light of day?" Odd asked as if it was a bright subject.

Cassidy gulped. "Odd, that kinda talk puts me over the hinge, you know!"

Aelita shook her head. "Don't worry, Odd. Jeremie will find a way to fix it, I'm sure."

The sea turned red.

"By the way, has anybody noticed a change in the light?" Yumi asked.

Cassidy raised her hand. "I think that means that XANA will be on the prowl."

"Yumi is right. That's strange," Aelita noted.

**-Back to Jeremie-**

Jeremie had gotten to the Arches when he saw Mr. Delmas walk down the way.

He hid, but nothing was too big for him.

He looked to his right. The dorms were wide open. He smiled and ran straight in, racing up the stairs, into the boys' dorms. He saw Mr. Fumet reading.

"Another teacher standing guard? What is this, Fort Knox?" he whispered to himself. Then he hid again when the history teacher's head turned his way, but turned back to his book. "Well, there isn't any other way." He peeked from behind the corner then ran across the hall.

**-Back to the Skid-**

Ulrich noticed something. "Hey, you guys see that dark thing up there?"

Up ahead, there was a dark sphere.

"Yes, I'll shut the lights to get a better view," Aelita tapped off the lights.

"Aelita, you think that's Lyoko?" Yumi asked, a bit worried.

"I don't know but whatever it is, its gravity is pulling us towards it."

The Skid was driving toward the dark sphere.

**-Back to Jeremie-**

Jeremie opened the window to the roof and climbed out. Wind kicked up his hair as he looked down and then to the side. Around the corner was the hall near to his room. "This is _not_ going to be a piece of cake," he muttered to himself. "Okay, let's do it!" He got on his hands and feet and climbed to the top of the roof. After he reached the top, he put a leg around the other side.

Letting out a breath, he tried to balance on the roof by standing. He flailed a little before carefully catching his balance and tightrope-walking across the edge. Keeping his toes facing away from each other, he was able to make it to the corner. When he looked down his vision shifted and blurred even with his needed glasses on.

He closed his eyes and focused on the task at hand. Jeremie went around the corner and tried to get his foot on the next top. He had to jump, so he did, and landed precisely on the top. He let out a sigh of relief and carried on with his mission. The method of keeping his toes facing away didn't last long as he nearly fell, but he grabbed the tile just in time.

**-Back to the Skid-**

"I would like to see that paper-pusher Einstein's face when he figures out that we didn't need his help to come back in," Odd sighed.

"Hey, Jeremie isn't too bad," Cassidy defended.

"Yeah, it's nice to be back on Lyoko," Ulrich agreed with him.

"But it's not Lyoko," Aelita looked at it.

"Huh? What?"

"Aelita tiene razón," Cassidy nodded.

"It's not Lyoko!" Aelita shook her head. "Hang on now!" She hit a button. "Retro-brakes!" Then she pressed a button and pulled back on the thrusters.

The Skid turned away from the Lyoko copy and drove away.

**-Back to Jeremie-**

Jeremie was still hanging onto the tile, but he, kicking all the while, pulled himself up. "Who said climbing can take you to great heights," he muttered with fear in his voice.

After hoisting himself to safety, Jeremie rested a bit. "Guess I should monkey around more often." He sat back up and scooted along the tiles to an open window. He slid down to the window, catching himself, just in case he fell, and finally, climbed the ladder down to the attic. But there was no time to think about the fact that he was now safe. He raced to the hatch, opened it, and climbed it down to the boys' dorm floor. He checked to see if the coast was clear then, seeing as so, ran over to his room, and retrieved the disc from his desk.

**-Back to the Skid-**

"There's something else up ahead," Yumi noted.

Indeed there was something up ahead. Two eel-like creatures were there.

"Hey look! It's Ugly and Uglier," Ulrich joked. "They look like some sort of eels."

Odd agreed. "I never met an eel I didn't like."

The two eel creatures looked at the Skid.

"Head's up, I'm breaking off," Aelita dodged the lasers that came from the creatures' eyes.

"I've seen spiked heels, but spiked eels? Never!" Odd shivered.

**-Back to Jeremie-**

Jeremie raced down the stairs and outside the dorm building. A fireman spotted him. "Hey. HEY!"

"Sorry! Got my own fire to put out," Jeremie ran off.

**-Back to the Action-**

The Skidbladnir dodged another few lasers that came from the eel creatures' eyes.

**-Back to Jeremie-**

Jeremie made it to the park and opened up the cover. He had to hurry fast.

**-Back to the Skid-**

Aelita was doing the best she could to get her friends out of there.

She took it up and dove down fast.

"Holy cow, Aelita. Be careful or you'll get us all killed. Who taught you how to pilot?" Odd was getting worried.

"You did, Odd," Aelita reminded.

"Oh."

"And you are also the one that taught me to use the OverBoard, Odd," Cassidy reminded.

She spun it around to avoid the lasers which caused everyone to scream.

"Aelita, we'll never make it against these monsters," Yumi fretted.

"I know! We're nearly out of energy. The Skid could disintegrate at any moment if Jeremie doesn't get back soon," Aelita was worried.

"I don't want to go back into the drink, Aelita," Cassidy shook.

**-Jeremie-**

Jeremie made it to the lab and sat back into his chair. He inserted the disc and replaced the communicator in his ear. "Okay, Aelita, I'm here in the computer lab. How are you holding up."

_"We're in big trouble, Jeremie. XANA's attacking us with some kind of fish. Some kind of moray or conger eels. Have you started up the debugging program?"_ Aelita asked.

"Yes, but you're burning up too much power, and if this continues, you guys will be gone before the debugging is done," Jeremie fretted. "We have to buy some time."

_"Okay, but how?"_

"Get those congers off your tail."

_"Hey!"_ Cassidy sounded a small hinge offended.

"Sorry, Cassidy. And launch the NavSkids," Jeremie ordered.

**-Back to the Skid-**

"What? We're going to fight them one-on-one?" Odd asked.

"Does Jeremie need to program and draw you a picture?" Cassidy would've elbowed Odd if she was near him.

_"Exactly, Odd. Just like in _Galactic Invaders_!"_ Jeremie affirmed.

Odd gripped a thruster and a lever. "Okay, bring her on!"

"Are you all set? NavSkids away!" She pulled down three of four little levers.

The NavSkids released and went after the eel-creatures.

"Hey these are more maneuverable than the OverBoards. Gangway!" Odd whooped.

The fun began.

_"Now, be very careful. If you get hit, it means you will be lost at sea."_

Cassidy hated to hear that.

"Gotcha, Einstein," Odd nodded. Then he targeted one of the monsters. "Fire torpedoes."

The torpedoes almost hit their target, but the monster dodged. "Unbelievable. It's up to you, ladies."

"They're tough customers," Yumi commented.

"I told them the steak was out today," Cassidy snickered.

"You said it," Odd passed them.

"Yumi, Cassidy, behind you," Ulrich warned.

The two turned the NavSkid around. Yumi targeted one of them. "Okay, come and get us!" she growled. She pressed a button on the first thruster. "NOW!"

The torpedoes hit one. "Got it!"

There left one eel creature.

"Nice one, Yumi. You get better and better."

"Maybe, but not good enough," Yumi smiled.

_"Be careful. Don't forget that the NavSkid's autonomy is limited,"_ Jeremie warned.

"We'll do what we can, Jeremie, but these monsters are hard to hit," Yumi told him.

_"Well, don't try to work any miracles."_

"It's miraculous that my powers didn't devastate the school by now," Cassidy shook her head.

_"Just keep them away from the Skid."_

"Right," Ulrich promised.

The eel was about to get the Skid but Ulrich distracted it. "Hey, fish freak. Looking for some more bait?"

The eel creature followed him around until…

"This time, I lost him," Ulrich breathed a sigh of relief.

_"The program is debugged. I'm sending your coordinates. Get out of there and fast,"_ Jeremie told them.

"NavSkids in," Aelita told them.

Odd, Yumi, and Cassidy worked their way back and attached themselves back into the Skid.

Ulrich came back and attached himself back in, too.

Two congers came into the area.

"Maximum Propulsion," Aelita commanded, pressing on the white buttons.

The Skid got away.

_"Trial Run's over guys. Back to dry dock."_

**-Later-**

"I would never have thought that the World Information Network is a real live ocean," Jeremie turned around in his chair.

Cassidy felt better.

"Yeah, with fish and everything," Odd smiled. "Big ones, too."

Aelita closed her eyes. "To think my father's on the network somewhere."

"Something tells me he escaped but I don't really know," Cassidy tried to help.

"Yeah, and so is William," Yumi mourned a little.

Cassidy cringed visibly when her ex's name was mentioned.

"That huge sphere we saw, what was that anyway?" Ulrich asked.

"Another virtual world just like Lyoko. A replica that XANA must've created from the data that he stole from Aelita," Jeremie assumed. "I really wonder what he's thinking of doing with it."

"We'll go and explore it," Ulrich vowed.

Odd and the others smiled.

"Yeah!"

"Right, but not tonight. The only thing I feel like exploring is my bed. I'm wiped out," Jeremie stretched as he got out of his chair.

"You're wiped out from sitting on your cushy chair? How'd you think we should feel then?" Odd smiled.

Jeremie smiled. "Odd, if I told you what I was doing while you were on the network, you'd never believe me."

Odd looked to Cassidy. "Should I guess or should you?"

She smiled. "It's your call, Odd. Not mine."

"Let me take a wild guess, okay? You did a little rock climbing on the dormitory roof," Odd smiled.

Cassidy started chuckling.

"Huh? But how'd ya know that?" Jeremie asked.

That shocked the whole room besides Cassidy. But then everyone started laughing.

"You know Einstein. You're really hilarious when you want to be, even when you don't want to be!" Odd cackled.


	49. Lyoko meets a Crash Course

**This is turning into a fine training session.**

**I don't own Code Lyoko. I do own Cassidy.**

**-Underneath the Arches-**

It was a fine day at Kadic. Aelita, Ulrich, Yumi, and Cassidy assumed their positions underneath the arches. Aelita leaned against a post, Cassidy sat down, Ulrich leaned back against the wall, and Yumi stood by him.

"Hey, Odd oughtta be here already. We were supposed to play foosball," Ulrich checked his watch.

"You know Odd, something probably came up at the last second," Yumi crossed her arms across her chest.

He smiled slyly. "I'll bet he's afraid to show up. If I know Odd, he's hiding somewhere because he knows I'll beat him."

Cassidy laughed. "I think you should listen to Aelita, Ulrich."

Aelita looked and scoffed with a light laugh. "If you ask me, it might just be that redhead with braids."

Far off, the four could see that Odd was talking to a red-haired girl with braids in her hair.

"Poor Odd," Cassidy sighed, pitying her used-to-be boyfriend. "He's been hit by too many of Eros's foil love arrows. Somehow I fear that he'll be hit by a few more of those."

"Well, what do you know? Our ladies' man is at it again," Ulrich smiled.

**-Later in the rec. room-**

Sissi was on the computer for some weird reason. Christophe and Mathias played ping-pong.

Meanwhile, Ulrich took a sip of his soda, Cassidy sat next to Aelita, and Yumi sat on the couch. The third latter took a sip after the former.

Then Odd came in the room, happy as a clam, walked to his buddies and sat on the couch. "Ah…ya know, life isn't bad at all." He leaned back and put his hands behind his spiky head, putting his feet up in the process.

"You say that as if you just contemplated suicide," Cassidy frowned suddenly.

"What is it?" Aelita asked.

She looked to her roommate. "It's—nothing, just had a bad vibe, that's all."

Aelita nodded. If Cassidy had a bad vibe, it was best to leave her alone. Then she turned to Odd. "I didn't know that you split up with Melanie, Odd."

"Who's she? Oh, yeah Melanie, right. Well—uh…she wasn't very…uh…she was just a little too—uh—well, actually a lot more—well, ya see what I mean?" Odd asked.

Cassidy was lost in the crazy sentence her friend came up with. "Um…no?"

"No," Aelita was lost too.

"What I see, Odd, is that you collect girlfriends the way other people collect stamps," Ulrich pointed to him around his soda can.

"Hey, I tell you it's for real, this time." Odd put his hand up.

"Eros probably tricked you, Odd," Cassidy winked. "His arrows are flimsy and foil."

"Believe me, Camille, she's it, she's the One. She's so funny, sensitive, and really cool, too."

"Yeah, just like all the girls you fall for," Ulrich quirked.

"Hey!" Cassidy took total offense to that one. "Ulrich, I was once his girl!"

Ulrich nearly choked on his soda but swallowed at the last moment.

"Yeah maybe, but Camille has something special the others don't. Well, she's crazy about dogs," Odd dropped the bombshell.

Ulrich choked for real this time.

Then some laughter arose.

Cassidy stood up. "Hey! I happen to like dogs, too, and I dated Odd, too!"

That stopped them.

"Come on, Cassidy, what's gotten you all riled up," Yumi asked, concerned. When Cassidy was this sensitive, something was up.

Cassidy sat down. She knew when she was caught. "It's my nightmares. I keep having them and they're all the same. And Ulrich's making me enojada with his quirks. I mean, I was once Odd's girl—"

"I'm right here, ya know," Odd was a little sensitive.

"—I was once your girl, Odd. And I like dogs. No one made fun of Odd and me once because of those two things, Yumi. Not Aelita, not even Ulrich or Jeremie, and not you. So why make fun of Odd and Camille—of which I'm happy for, Odd—and not make fun of Odd and me when we were dating?"

Ulrich thought on it. "You got a point there."

"We're very sorry, Cassidy," Yumi sympathized.

"Just think of this when Odd goes out with another girl that likes dogs like me or Camille."

Odd blushed. "What's so funny anyway?"

"That makes all the difference in the world?" Yumi asked Odd.

"Yeah, and this afternoon, we're going to the movies together," he defended his honor brilliantly.

"To see what? _Wheelchair Zombie 4_ or _Snorkel Combat 2_?" Ulrich asked.

"No way, those days are over. We're going to see something real romantic and intellectual. The picture's called Petals of Desire," He nodded.

More laughter arose.

_Can I ever win?_ Cassidy thought shaking her head.

"The problem with you guys besides Cassidy is that you have no sense of romance and no intellect," Odd defended.

"Speaking of intellect, has anyone seen Jeremie?" Ulrich asked.

Aelita answered. "Oh, he went back to his room. I think he's still got a few big problems."

**-Later on-**

"The only problem I have is our friend XANA. Do you remember the last few times he attacked?" Jeremie asked.

Cassidy shuddered. "I will never forget the tire attack. Too much rubber."

"What happened with the tires?" Aelita asked.

She blushed. "N-nothing. Nothing at all!"

"Which one? The one with the trees or at the swimming pool?" Odd asked.

"Odd, we agreed not to bring up that day at the pool, right?" Ulrich looked to his roommate sternly.

Aelita was curious. "Why? What happened at the swimming pool, huh?"

Ulrich and Yumi blushed. "Uh, nothing." He tried to keep from doing so.

"Nothing at all!" she whispered a little.

"Whatever, I meant _all_ the attacks that XANA has launched recently, okay? Haven't you noticed what the target has been," Jeremie asked.

"Well, yeah. Us!" Odd raised his hands up.

"But the target has recently changed to Aelita, Jeremie, and me—Jeremie and Aelita, I kinda understand, but _me?_ It's a mystery made in XANA," Cassidy shook her head.

"And Aelita and I are the only ones who can use the supercomputer, and Cassidy can use it some but has no knowledge of it," Jeremie kept everybody focused.

"That's because the technical stuff gives me a Megatank-sized headache," she rubbed her forehead.

"Come on, we've all done it!" Ulrich protested a little.

"Following our instructions on the phone. What would happen if Aelita, Cassidy, and I weren't around to give you guys any help? XANA wins hands down! Which is why I'm giving you a crash course on using the supercomputer this afternoon," Jeremie walked down to his door.

"What? No way! Count me out. I'm going to the movies!" Odd led the protest charge.

"And I've got a test to study for," Yumi crossed her arms across her chest.

Ulrich came in. "And I've got Pencak Silat practice."

Those protests almost angered Jeremie a little. "If you guys think you have got better things to do, I can't force you to come. But then don't expect us to gain ground on XANA."

Yumi grumbled a little. Jeremie was right, as usual, but she had homework. "You're right, but some days it's not easy being heroes."

"And there have been times where I want to stop fighting XANA, but I have to keep myself going," Cassidy shook her head. "I made a vow. And I have to live up to that."

"Now listen, we'll meet up at the computer lab after lunch and if you pick it up quickly, it'll be over in a couple of hours, okay," Jeremie walked back to his computer.

"Yeah, okay," Odd said as he, Yumi, and Ulrich stood up and left the room.

Cassidy and Aelita stayed behind.

Jeremie sat down and got to work on his computer.

"Uh…Jeremie, we—we can't make it this afternoon," Aelita said on behalf of both of the girls.

Cassidy showed a sheepish smile.

"Huh?" He stopped in his work and turned to the two. "Why not?"

The psychic girl took in a deep breath and said, "Remember when Chris came to Kadic and held that DJ contest. Well uh, to-today's the final round of tryouts. Aelita and I, we're like the third and fourth contestants of the Triwizard Tournament."

"That's impossible," Jeremie protested.

"I hate to be that bearer of bad news, but it's possible," she was nervous.

"What if something happens to me while you two are gone?" He was worried.

Aelita had to calm him down. "That's no problem. While you're teaching them how to run the supercomputer we'll keep our phones on. If XANA attacks, we'll be back in no time." She smiled that special, little smile that made his heart melt every time.

He relaxed a little. "Okay, you're right. I worry too much…"

"You aren't alone, Jeremie," Cassidy reassured.

"…go on. I can manage without you two."

"Thanks, Jeremie," Aelita said, and gave her knight in glasses a kiss on the cheek.

He blushed in pride.

Then Cassidy gave him a friendly hug.

**-Under the Arches-**

Ulrich, Yumi, and Odd walked, disappointed in the ruination of their plans. "So much for my training session. Great!" Ulrich grumbled.

"What about me? I'm going to flunk another exam for sure," she feared.

Odd came in. "That's nothing. If you think you've got it bad, huh, how am I going to tell Camille that _Petals of Desire_ is out for today?"

The samurai warrior smiled. "Think about it, Odd. You're better off. You don't have to pay all that money just to sleep through two hours of a film."

"It's better than sleeping through a class given by our own friend Einstein."

**-Lab-**

"Okay, to start off, we're going to go through a little bit of theory," Jeremie pulled out leaflets of notes and handed them off to Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi. "I printed you guys out a small list of basic functions, to prepare you for—"

"Hey, wait a minute, Einstein," Odd interrupted, taking his list. "Wouldn't it be easier if we just skip ahead to the practical side? You tell us which button to push and presto."

"Odd, working the supercomputer isn't like fooling around on a game console. Before I can trust you with the controls, I want to be sure you know this thing inside out."

The three showed looks of confusion and surprise.

"Will you all relax? You see, guys, the theoretical stuff is actually a lot of fun," Jeremie sat down in his cushy chair.

Ulrich leaned back against a wall. "Right, it's going to be a million laughs."

**-With Aelita and Cassidy-**

Aelita and Cassidy made it to the Subdigitals studio. The two were a bit nervous.

"Eyes on the prize, Aelita," Aelita told herself.

"It kinda does feel like one of us—I don't know whom—is the fourth Triwizard Tournament winner here. Two from Kadic, one each from Lincoln Junior High and Lionel Junior High. This time it's three ladies, and one lad."

They walked up to the door. Aelita opened it to reveal Chris.

"Aelita, Cassidy, hello. I'm glad that you two could make it," Chris greeted, and then led the girls inside. "Let me introduce you to everyone. You two already know Nick and Benoit, my partners." He gestured to two men. The first, Ben, was black haired, had a black shirt, blue jean pants, brown, and had a beard/mustache combination. He was setting up an amplifier. Nick was thinner than Ben, but had golden brown hair, a red shirt covered by green vest-coat, blue pants and black and yellow shoes.

They nodded their greetings to the two girls.

Chris turned their attention to… "Sophie, who holds the purse strings."

A strawberry blond woman with purple square-rimmed glasses, a purple and pink shirt under a burgundy red button overcoat, and blue pants that had to be held up by a belt, greeted the two. "Hello, Aelita and Cassidy."

Then the attention turned to… "And that big bear in his cage is Simon, our sound engineer."

Inside the sound effects room, a bulky man with dark brown hair, a brown shirt under a blue jeans jacket, and a beard, waved at the two.

Then Chris introduced the contestants to Aelita and Cassidy. "And this is Mattie—" pronounced mate-E—"And Elise, who are the other contestants for this final audition."

A teenage boy with short, dark blue hair and periwinkle framed glasses, a white-collared shirt and a blue tie, a purple bracelet on his left wrist, a dark grey pair of pants, and blue tennis shoes was sitting on the couch. A girl with teal hair in pigtails, a black leather jacket over indigo T-shirt, red pants with a pink belt, and black shoes was the first to greet the two girls.

"Hi," Aelita smiled.

**-With Jeremie's class in session-**

"And so if we export the virtual memory in the B-block inertial matrix we can reconfigure the transfer files. This will delay the alignment of the quantum two-bits," Jeremie lectured. "I'm sure you see where I'm going with this. Any questions?"

Odd was sleeping, and Ulrich and Yumi were very much confused.

"Yeah, I got one. How do you expect for us to remember all this blah, blah junk?"

"If you guys were a little more attentive, you would've been able to understand it."

"Ulrich's right, Jeremie. Stop trying to teach us everything you know. Just show us how to do some practical stuff like materializing us on Lyoko or programming up the vehicles," Yumi was spot on.

Jeremie saw that there was no other option. "Okay, fine. We may as well get to the practical end."

Odd woke up. "Are we there yet?"

**-Back to Aelita, Cassidy, Mattie, and Elise-**

Mattie was working his magic on the board. The music had a very driving beat.

Aelita and Cassidy were very nervous and looked over inside the sound effects room, where the band was listening to the music.

"Aelita whatever happens, we must promise to still be friends," Cassidy breathed into her ear.

"Promise."

Then Mattie turned the music off and took off the headset.

"Okay, Mattie, nice one."

He placed the phones on the turntable.

_That was a very good beat,_ Cassidy thought._ Aelita has a good chance—oh what am I saying? Aelita will win and I know it. But there's no use in throwing in the towel._

**-In the Scanner Room-**

The elevator opened and Odd walked into a scanner. "And make sure you hit the right button. I'm ready Ulrich. But I don't want to end up there with four arms and three legs.

** -In the Lab-**

"Uh, okay. Um…T-Tran-transfer, Odd," Ulrich was unsure. "Is that it?" He turned to Jeremie who gave him a nod. He typed on the keys. "Transfer, Odd!" He pressed the enter key.

**-Scanner Room-**

The doors closed on Odd.

**-In the Lab-**

"Scanner, Odd." The image on the computer screen filled in full. "And…uh, virtualization."

After…Odd's virtual card jumped up onscreen.

_"Ahh! You turned me into a garden gnome!"_ Odd yelled.

There was a stir of panic.

Ulrich was filled with regret. "Oh, no!"

**-In the Ice Sector-**

"Relax, just kidding," Odd almost cackled. "Everything's cool here."

**-Back at the Lab-**

Ulrich, Yumi, and Jeremie relaxed.

"Not so bad for a beginner, huh?" Ulrich asked.

"Yeah, not bad. You were confused for a second, and almost hit the wrong button, Mr. I Don't Need Any Theory!"

He got annoyed. "Ah, you're never satisfied; did I get him to Lyoko, yes or no?"

"Yes, because I was here with you! And you weren't even under the stress of a XANA attack."

The super-scan picked up an **activated tower.**

Jeremie instantly panicked. "Give me my seat back!"

Ulrich did so and his friend typed on the keys. "Activated tower in the Mountain Sector. Head for the scanners. Hurry up."

Before either Ulrich or Yumi could move, a black smoke slithered down from the pipes of the ceiling to the ground, taking on the form of a man with brown hair, sunglasses, and a black suit.

**-We interrupt this scene with Cassidy and Aelita's contest-**

It was still the first round of tryouts. Aelita was mixing the music so well.

A deadly shiver took hold of Cassidy. "No," she whispered so quietly no one could hear it.

Elise looked to her competitor in concern. "Are you okay, Cassidy, was it?"

"Jeremie," Cassidy whispered, and this time she heard it.

"Are you alright?"

She snapped out of it. "What?" Then she realized who she was talking to. "Oh, I sometimes have a bad vibe about something that may not happen." It was a total lie, but it was enough. Inside, Cassidy thought, _I sometimes have a bad vibe about something that does happen._ "Nothing too serious to get all worked up about, right?"

Elise nodded with a smile, and then went on to listen to Aelita's music.

_That was close,_ Cassidy was relieved. _One small slip and you would've disqualified Aelita and yourself out of this contest. Way to keep the rhino in the bag._

**-Back to the show-**

The man stood up in his brown shoes. At first, the clone seemed nothing of note, albeit a tower was activated.

Ulrich ran up to him. "Leave him to me!" He jumped, and with a martial arts cry, kicked at him.

The clone caught the kick and threw him down to the floor. Then, seeing his work was done, he walked over to the wires, picked one up, and pulled it apart.

Jeremie got out of his seat. "Hey!"

Before the genius had time to react, the clone sprang on him and forced him to the Holomap bowl.

Yumi was frightened by this. "Jeremie!"

The clone positioned the open sparking end of the wire.

Yumi watched in horror as the deed was done. "Jeremie!"

Jeremie slowly and unconsciously fell to the ground.

She tried a valiant stance, but then the clone went up to the arm keeping the supercomputer above ground, and vanished.

"He disappeared," Yumi looked around.

Ulrich stood up and scratched the back of his head.

**-Back to Aelita and Cassidy-**

"Well, take our breath away, Cassidy. It's all yours," Chris smiled at the contestants.

A shiver of nervousness went down her spine, but managed to wane just in time. Cassidy went up to the mixing board. _Alright, here we go._

She put her disk on the turntable. _I'm ready. There's no one here besides the Subdigitals, Aelita, and me. I can do this._

The music started. She mixed the way she felt. It was excellently done. When she finished she went back to the couch.

"Now it's your turn again, Aelita. Wow us out," Chris said.

Aelita nodded and went up to the mixing board. After placing her disc on the platter, she put on the headphones.

The toning arm automatically went on to the record.

She adjusted the pitch controls. The music was awesome.

Mattie and Elise were amazed.

Cassidy smiled. _That's my roommate and friend._

Everyone in the sound studio loved it.

**-Back over to Yumi and Ulrich-**

Yumi listened to Jeremie's chest for a few seconds. Then she lifted her head. "He's still breathing, but he took a lot of volts."

Ulrich looked to his friend. _This should not be happening,_ he thought.

_"Hey, uh, guys?"_ A familiar voice echoed around the room. _"Remember me?"_

Ulrich walked over to the computer and put on the headpiece. "Odd, I think we're in a big jam. XANA's sicced a polymorphing specter on us and Einstein's out cold."

Odd's voice was optimistic as usual. _"Oh, well it's a good thing he showed us how to work the supercomputer."_

Ulrich sat in the chair. "Oh, yeah, it's up to us. Anyone have a good idea what to do now?"

This time Cassidy's words stayed silent.

_Darn you, just when I need you._

Yumi whipped out her cell phone. "Yes, call Aelita or Cassidy, whoever's available."

**-Back at the contest-**

Aelita was still in the contest when her phone rang. Cassidy went up and found a text message.

_C and A,_

_XANA's attacking. Please come quick._

_Yumi_

Cassidy knew her shiver was right. She texted back:

_Okay, but wait until Aelita gets done. She's nearly done._

_Cassidy_

She sent it, and then got an alert.

_Okay, but hurry!_

Cassidy replaced the phone and sat down on the couch.

**-Back in the lab-**

"Cassidy answered Aelita's cell phone. She said that they'll be there when Aelita gets done," Yumi told Ulrich.

_"Okay, we'll just have to improvise. What do we do?"_ Odd asked.

Yumi wasn't sure. "Uh…for openers, Odd. Try to get to the Mountain Sector."

"Yumi shouldn't we get Odd back to earth while we try to wake up Jeremie," Ulrich asked.

"Okay, you know how to materialize him?" She asked.

"Uh, no, do you?" He hesitated.

**-On Lyoko's Ice Sector-**

"No sense arguing, guys. I'd rather stay here and fight," Odd said. "Just tell me where I might find a way tower."

** -Back to the lab-**

"Let see, um, a way tower. Oh, I know. To find a way tower, you have to open a radar window with these two keys," Yumi tapped on two separate keys.

A window popped up and Odd's head and body were separated. Odd panicked. _"Hey, what are you doing? Get it right!"_

"Stop it! Hurry up!" Ulrich panicked too.

Yumi pressed on the same two keys again. Odd's head aligned with the body and the window vanished.

_"Thanks. Well then, Plan B,"_ Odd said. _"Try to bring up my OverBoard. Maybe I can find that stupid way tower on my own from the air."_

Ulrich flipped through the notes. "Okay, um, OverBoard, OverBoard. Darn it! Einstein's notes are all over the place."

"I think it's this one here." Yumi pointed on a place.

**-Back to Odd-**

"Well, then take your time, okay, 'cuz I got nothing better to do," Odd smiled.

**-Back to Ulrich and Yumi-**

_"Speaking of which, has anyone seen Specter Gadget?"_

Yumi had a spark of curiosity. "Yeah, how come he disappeared like that?"

"Guess he had another date," Ulrich looked at the notes.

She remembered. "Aelita and Cassidy! The specter must've gone after them! We've got to get them to safety right away!" She ran over to the elevator. "See ya later!"

"Hold on! You're not going to leave me alone like this?" Ulrich protested.

She pushed the up button. "You're doing great, Ulrich. Just keep it up."

The elevator closed.

He groaned.

**-Back to Odd-**

Odd raced around trying to find the way tower. He met an edge. "I don't believe this. Where is this way tower?"

**-Back to Ulrich-**

"I don't know. But uh…Odd…"

**-Back to Odd-**

_"…you have some thingamajigs heading your way."_

Odd turned around and found…

"Huh? You're making progress but those thingamajigs are Bloks and they don't look too friendly!" He raced into the battle zone.

The three Bloks charged up their lasers and fired. Odd dropped to his hands and jumped. "LASER ARROW!" he cried as he fired three laser arrows at them.

They missed.

Odd landed on his own two feet and slid. "I don't believe it! I missed them all!" He got near to the leader and ran away from the three. "Okay, you monsters, COOL IT!"

One of the lasers hit Odd's tail, to which he cried out. He now knew how Cassidy felt like when she took a tail shot. He then jumped.

**-With the specter-**

The specter, in ghost form, slithered between the legs of passersby like a serpent. It was out with a vengeance.

**-Back to Aelita and Cassidy-**

Aelita took off the headphones. "Well, I guess that's it then."

"Okay, thanks to all three of you for that great stuff. Just give us a few minutes to talk it over and we'll let you know of our decision," Chris said.

As Aelita went over to put her mix CD back, Cassidy went with her. "Aelita, there's an ojo in the Montañas Rocosas cheddar."

The girl looked to the other one confused. "What?"

"There's an eye in the Rocky Mountain cheddar."

"I don't understand."

Cassidy breathed in Aelita's ear. "There's an activated tower in the Mountain Sector of Lyoko."

"Who texted?"

"Yumi!"

Aelita understood.

**-In the Sound studio-**

"Aelita and Cassidy are in a dead heat tie. They've got to be our choice," Chris was adamant.

"Oh yeah, no doubt about that," Simon agreed.

Sophie, Nick, and Benoit nodded in agreement.

** -Back to Lyoko-**

The monsters charged their lasers.

"Hey where's my ride. Are you sending it over or not?" Odd asked in a protest.

**-Back to the Lab-**

"D'uh, I'm working on it. Let's see, I—um—oh! There it is, I got it!"

**-Back to Odd-**

"Well, try to work faster!" Odd climbed up an ice floe and got to the top. Then he jumped off and launched a couple more arrows. He got the leader right in the eye, then landed and ran.

**-Back to Ulrich-**

"Materialization…"

**-Back to Odd-**

_"…OverBoard!"_

A vehicle came online.

"Ulrich! You just sent me the OverBike!" Odd protested again.

**-Back to Ulrich-**

"Uh…sorry Odd, I can't send you anything else," Ulrich apologized.

**-Back to Odd-**

"Well, it's better than nothing. But there's another problem. You were supposed to send it to _me_, not to _them_—_dummy_! Well, I guess it's up to me to _unblock_ the situation," Odd said looking at the Bloks.

He ran and got rid of one, jumped on the last Blok, and raced over to his friend's vehicle. "Time to saddle up!"

He revved off and jumped over the last Blok. "YEHAW!" Now he was on his way to finding a passage tower.

**-Back to the contest-**

Chris pressed a button. "Well, Mattie, Elise, I'm really sorry, guys, but…"

He noticed two people were missing.

"But where are Aelita and Cassidy?"

**-With Aelita and Cassidy-**

Aelita and Cassidy were racing to the factory when they spotted the clone.

Dangerous memories flashed before Aelita's eyes.

Cassidy caught spark of this.

"About face and fast!"

Aelita nodded and the two ran the opposite direction.

The clone kept running after them.

The two ran across a street.

The clone only made it to a corner when…

"HI-YAH!" Yumi forced him into the street in the way of a moving car. He ghosted through the hit.

Cassidy was both relieved and excited as she helped Yumi to her feet.

"Hurry, move it!" Yumi ordered.

The driver got out of the car. "Hey, are you okay? Nothing broken? Everything cool?"  
The clone grabbed him when he got too close and threw him a few feet away.

He took the car and drove off.

**-Back with Odd-**

Odd was trying to find a way tower. "Hey Ulrich, where is this way tower?"

**-Back to Ulrich-**

"Sorry Odd, I'm afraid to push any of these buttons."

_"Well, ya better. I'm starting to rust over here!"_

Ulrich put his notes on his lap, and tapped on a few keys. A pop-up window came up with a countdown.

"What's that number doing here?" Ulrich was majorly confused. Yumi called him. "Great, Yumi. Just in time."

**- Back to the three girls-**

_"I've got some sort of countdown window up here."_

"Hang on; I've got the expert with me!" Yumi threw her phone to Aelita. "Here!"

Aelita caught it and put it up to her ear. "Ulrich, it's Aelita. Is there anything written above the window?"

**-Back to Ulrich-**

"Uh, yeah, it says 'Big Fat Cheese Head'! What does that mean?"

**-Back to the girls-**

"I—it's a code. You've started a delayed virtualization directly into the Mountain Sector."

Aelita handed Yumi her phone back.

**-Back to Ulrich-**

"Ulrich, has Odd found the way tower?" Yumi asked.

Ulrich was at the elevator. "No, but I just got a mega-idea!"

The elevator closed.

**-Back to Yumi-**

"Ulrich? Ulrich?**!**" She hung up when she didn't get a response. She stopped and turned to Aelita. "'Big Fat Cheese Head'?"

Aelita blushed. "It's a private joke between Jeremie and me."

"We better run!" Cassidy kept running.

They heard the sound of a car coming straight at them.

"Yumi!" Aelita worried.

"This way!" They took the stairs.

The car stopped.

**-Back to Ulrich-**

Ulrich stepped into a scanner as the count down reached zero.

Soon he was on Lyoko's Mountain Sector. He was off to go to the vicinity of the activated tower.

**-Back to the three girls-**

Aelita, Yumi, and Cassidy made it to the factory with the car not too far behind them.

Cassidy raced for the ramp as fast as she could.

Aelita and Yumi jumped and grabbed the ropes.

The car stopped.

**-Back to Odd-**

Odd kept driving around the Ice Sector. "This ice floe sure looks deserted." He kept looking around. Then he spotted a tower. "Well, nothing to lose. Let's try that tower." He went in and tried to switch sectors, but ended up back where he started.

He put on the brakes. "I can't believe it; I'm still stuck in the Ice Sector."

**-To the Girls in the Lab-**

Cassidy, Aelita, and Yumi made it to the lab. "The clone's going to close in fast," Cassidy spark-flashed a vision.

"Ulrich just virtualized himself into the Mountain Sector," Aelita told Yumi and Cassidy. "Oh, Odd, that way tower's a little further, bearing northwest of your position. We'll meet you in the Mountain Sector. Move it!"

**-Back to Odd-**

"Well better late than never." He smiled a little, and then headed northwest.

**-Back to Yumi, Cassidy, and Aelita-**

"Your turn, Yumi. Virtualize me," Aelita said.

Cassidy and Yumi were checking Jeremie's vitals.

Yumi went up to the supercomputer as Aelita went down the ladder.

The geisha warrior started typing on the program.

**-Back to Ulrich-**

Ulrich super-sprinted to find the tower guarded by three Krabes and William.

William did not see the enemy yet, which was Ulrich's intention.

"Uh-oh, bingo," Ulrich said.

**-Back to Yumi and Cassidy-**

"Transfer, Aelita," Yumi said.

The clone was above them. Cassidy looked up from looking at Jeremie and gulped down a shriek. _If I shriek, Yumi's going to screw up. I got to be strong._

"Scanner, Aelita." Yumi looked calmly at the screen. "Virtualization."

**-On Lyoko-**

Aelita virtualized and landed behind Ulrich.

**-Back to Yumi-**

"I DID IT!" Yumi yelled excitedly.

"Good job, Yumi!" Cassidy smiled.

**-Back to Lyoko-**

It was time to give the proper welcome.

She came up behind him. "You-who, guess who."

That startled him into unsheathing two of his four katanas. He was about to cut when he realized it was Aelita.

"What's on the menu?" Aelita asked.

"The usual stuff. A whole seafood platter over there, and William's the lemon," Ulrich pointed his katana at the opposition.

**-Back to Yumi and Cassidy-**

"YEAH!" Yumi smiled.

The clone dropped down.

_"You may panic now!"_ A weird voice echoed in Cassidy's brain.

Cassidy shrieked.

Yumi turned around with a gasp.

A big hand started to grab for them.

"NO!" Cassidy yelled long and hard.

**-Back to Aelita and Ulrich-**

All of a sudden, Aelita and Ulrich heard a noise. They turned to the source. "YAHOO!" Odd came in.

Aelita put her hands on her hips.

"You sure took your time," Ulrich cut in.

Odd got off the OverBike. "Yeah, but at least I got here, and no thanks to you, if you knew how many towers I went through before I got to the right one."

"We're going to need more vehicles, Yumi," Aelita looked to the sky. "Do you read me, Yumi?"

**-Back to Yumi and Cassidy-**

The clone threw Yumi and Cassidy to the wall as if they were sacks of flour. _"Yumi, Cassidy? Answer us!"_ Aelita was getting worried.

Yumi stood up, Cassidy slowly following. They were bruised and battered.

**-Back to Odd, Ulrich, and Aelita-**

"Transmission problems?" Odd asked.

"No, I think it's worse. But I'm pretty sure that the specter's in the computer lab," Aelita answered.

Ulrich saw no other option. "Okay, I'll go. Shoot me, Odd!"

Odd had a different plan. "No, I should be the one. I've already lost lots of life points. And you still got all yours!"

Ulrich saw what Odd was getting at, a little.

"You'd be more useful here. And what's more, that's exactly what we did during the swimming pool attack!" Odd scratched his chin.

That angered the samurai warrior. "I don't ever want to hear about the swimming pool again!" He unsheathed his katanas and sliced the now-Cat-warrior. "That'll teach ya, huh?" Ulrich turned to Aelita. "Saddle up, Princess."

"Okay," Aelita smiled.

** -Scanner room-**

Odd came out of the scanners.

**-Later on, on Lyoko-**

Ulrich and Aelita were charging in on the OverBike. "This is going to be a close one!"

William unsheathed his sword, having seen the opposition.

**-Back to Yumi and Cassidy-**

Cassidy and Yumi were trying to hold on. Cassidy had more bruises than Yumi did. The looks in their eyes were desperate.

They were reaching out, trying to defend themselves, when, the clone disappeared.

Odd was holding the sparking ends of the wires.

Cassidy had to gulp a massive amount of air to keep from passing out at that moment. "Thank God you're here, Odd."

**-Back on Lyoko-**

Ulrich and Aelita dodged another few lasers. Then he turned to her. "Right now!"

She activated her wings and gained altitude, avoiding Krabes in the process.

Ulrich got on top of his OverBike, got out two of his four katanas, leaned to his left, turning his vehicle over, got under and through a Krabe, flipped onto it, and stabbed it in the eye. "IMPACT!"

He jumped off in front of the two Krabes and William.

**-Back to Odd, Yumi, and Cassidy-**

Odd went over to the two girls. "Yumi, Cassidy, are you two okay?"

Cassidy panted. "'Feels like I—" she took in a sharp, ragged, shuddering breath—"like I was forced into a blender set on—chop and scar."

"I—I didn't realize you were back," Yumi looked up at Odd.

Odd put Yumi's and Cassidy's arms around his neck and started to walk them to the elevator. "Neither did he, but he sure knows now."

"Odd," Cassidy winced at the touch. "I won't make it to Lyoko. Set me next to Jeremie."

Odd was flabbergasted. "But you like going on Lyoko."

"I—I know, but in the shape I'm in, it'd be—bad."

He closed his eyes and set her down gently next to Jeremie.

"Don't let the salamanders sing to you. They sing like a thousand helium-drunk Sissi clones." Then Cassidy went unconscious.

Odd fought the urge to laugh as he walked Yumi to the elevator. "We've got no time to lose. He could reform at any second." He placed her on the wall of the elevator. "Okay, don't move."

"You think you can virtualize me, Odd?" Yumi whispered.

Odd went on the computer, put on the communicator and started typing. "Relax. I'm a computer wiz. You know that."

The elevator closed.

"Um…not!"

**-Back to the battle on Lyoko-**

William was growing tired of this when he saw Aelita almost to the tower.

**"Super Smoke!"** He ghosted until he was in between Aelita and the tower. Then he rematerialized.

That stopped her for sure.

In William's XANAfied mind, he thought, _there's no way she will deactivate this tower._

Aelita activated an energy field in her hand and launched it. William blocked it with his zabanto. He began to advance on her.

Meanwhile, Ulrich used his Super Sprint ability to get rid of another Krabe. Two gone, one to go. He ran over to the third Krabe.

William threw his big sword at Aelita, who used her energy field shield to block, but the force of the impact/deflection shoved her on her stomach.

Ulrich noticed this fast. "Aelita!"

William started to laugh tauntingly in front of her.

When she was back on her feet, the minion started to advance. Aelita backed away fearfully.

Ulrich had two decisions: one, he could face the Krabe, but then it could be too late. And two, he could keep William away from Aelita so she could get to the tower, but then there would be the Krabe.

He decided on the latter decision. "Super Sprint!" He tried to get nearer to Aelita so he could defend her, but then it hit him in the side.

He was nearly impaled but he rolled away from the pincer-like leg.

Ulrich let out a sigh of relief.

The possessed minion was about to smoke her when a fan wizzed and hit his wrist.

"What's this, William—another girl catch your eye?" The fan returned to Yumi.

William growled at her.

Aelita was relieved. "Nice one, Odd. Just in time."

_"Thank you, thank you."_

**-Back to Odd-**

The clone landed beside Odd. "This is just a taste of my talent. Einstein will be so—" He saw him. "That's funny. I'd have sworn you were taller!"

**-Back to Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita-**

The Krabe was losing balance on the edge, and Ulrich saw this as a sign to cut off one of its legs. After he did that, the monster fell into the digital sea.

Ulrich saluted. "'Later, gator!"

Meanwhile Yumi was doing her best guarding Aelita. William kept cutting her attacks.

Yumi re-caught her fan and backed away with Aelita.

**-Back to Odd-**

Odd backed into a wall. He gritted his teeth, and then thought of something. "Hey, look up there!" He pointed upward. He evasively tried to run away. It didn't work. "It works most of the time."

**-Back to Yumi, Aelita, and Ulrich-**

William started to charge at Yumi and Aelita. Yumi threw her fan at him again.

He blocked again. **"You're finished, Yumi!"** He jumped.

She ran up and jumped. "We'll see about that!"

He got rid of her in one swipe.

Now it was just him and Aelita now.

Deciding to take the risk, she activated her wings and flew up into the sky.

William needed her to come down, so he threw his zabanto at her, to which Ulrich blocked and threw his two katanas at him.

He yelled, **"NO!"** but it was too late. The two swords cut into his stomach and he disappeared.

Aelita touched back down and went into the tower.

She went to the center and rose up to the second platform.

**-Back to Odd-**

The clone positioned the sparking end of the wire very closely to Odd.

He shrieked.

**-Back to Aelita-**

Aelita made it to the second platform.

Placing a hand on the screen, she was ready to deactivate the tower.

AELITA

It blinked three or four times. Then it said

CODE

Aelita typed the code.

LYOKO

**-Odd-**

The wire was closer.

**-Aelita-**

"Tower Deactivated."

**-Odd-**

The clone fizzed and dropped Odd and the wire as it disappeared.

Odd gritted his teeth, but realized he was safe.

**-Later-**

Jeremie's vision slowly came to normal and his heart beat regulated as he woke up. "What happened?"

He slowly sat up as he said, "Aelita…the specter…the tower…did you…did you do it?"

"Me? I didn't do anything," Aelita said.

Then Cassidy came to. "Ugh…"

Odd flew to her side. "Easy, Cat-Girl. The clone totally tossed you a number."

She gritted her teeth. "No more beatings!"

Odd carefully cradled her in his arms. "Sh…he's gone."

Whimpering, tears coming to her eyes, she tried to hug him. It was much easier said than done.

Odd wrapped her in a hug.

**-The next day, in the rec. room-**

"I have to say, you guys held your own in the end," Jeremie said.

Cassidy was a little shamefaced. "I almost didn't."

"It's okay, Cassidy," Aelita consoled.

"But you have to admit I was right. If XANA attacks Aelita or me now, I know you'll be able to take over."

Yumi smiled. "So that means you trust us, huh?"

"Yeah, uh, a bit," Jeremie crossed his arms across his chest.

"That's good news, 'cuz the day after tomorrow, Cassidy and I'll be gone all day," Aelita announced. "We have our dress rehearsal. The Subdigitals chose us to be the opening acts for their concert, even though we walked out on them."

"We even tried to do one sudden death match, but we ended up tying again," Cassidy put the ice bag that she had on her stomach.

"That's fabulous, you two, well done," Jeremie congratulated with a smile.

"Hey, that's great," Ulrich said, and then spotted Odd. "By the way, Odd, how was _Petals of Desire?_"

"Oh it was lame. What's more, I broke up with Camille. I'm over all that romantic stuff. Ya know, I'm more into action, like the day the swimming pool attack, for instance."

Yumi groaned. "Odd, don't talk about the swimming pool, okay?"

Aelita was even more curious. "Hey don't tell us you're never going to tell us what happened at the pool, huh?"

Ulrich was adamant. "No."

"Well, it's simple really. Uh…let's see now. Remember the attack in the gymnasium?" Odd asked.

"Odd, we told you not to bring up the attack at the gym, right?" Jeremie was getting embarrassed.

"Why, what happened at the gym?" Ulrich asked.

Jeremie and Aelita blushed.

"Oh, nothing, really" Jeremie tried for cover.

"Nothing at all," Aelita did too as she looked to her knight in glasses and he looked at her back.


	50. We're Replikated? Wow!

**Well this feels duplicated.**

**I don't own Code Lyoko. I do own Cassidy. Let's go!**

**Also part of this was finished by LyokoWarrior1994**

**-In Odd and Ulrich's dorm room at night-**

Odd was playing a video game, making as much noise as a helicopter. He was confident to win. "Ha-ha, take that, fireball. Come here you slimy vortex. You'll see! You think you're so smart? Wait until I discombobulate you into the black hole!"

A brunette head uncovered itself from the bed opposite him and groaned. "Odd, you mind cooling it down a little?"

He let out a scream and looked at the display. "Great, thanks a lot! You made me miss the bonus ball. I'm dying of sleep deprivation and now you're making me start all over again."

"At four A.M.?" Ulrich asked.

Odd let out the affirmative.

The boy beside him groaned and threw his pillow over his head. This would be a long night.

**-The next morning, still in Ulrich and Odd's room-**

Odd was sleeping with his Game Boy in his hand.

A hand shook his shoulder. "Odd, wake up. Time to rise and shine!" Ulrich sang-song.

Odd opened an eye and blinked. "What are you guys dressed like that for?"

Jeremie, dressed in his gym attire, said, "It'll come to you. Think it over, Odd."

He took a moment, and then jumped up. "Oh, no, Phys Ed."

"And the ganador is Odd Della Robbia!" Cassidy cheered.

Odd went back to lying on his stomach. "Forget about it, guys. I don't think I can go. Galactic Battle totally wiped me out."

"I don't think an excuse like that is going to sit you well with Jim," Ulrich cracked.

He looked to Aelita. "Aelita, do me a big favor. Think of a nice, legitimate excuse so I could stay here and sleep."

Aelita was confused. "Me? What am I supposed to tell him?"

Cassidy smiled and whispered in her ear. "Don't worry, Aelita. I'll say an excuse for him and for you."

Odd was already asleep.

"Thanks a lot!" Aelita played along.

**-At Jim's class-**

"Della Robbia. Della Robbia, I don't want to have to repeat that. DELLA ROBBIA!" Jim called.

"Odd was feeling down after a rough break-up with a pretty girl so he went to the forest to sulk. He wishes to be alone, sir," Cassidy said.

"Absent then; sometimes the best way to cope is to be alone. Results may vary of course, but still," Jim stopped himself and then continued on. "Delmas!"

Sissi pointed her thumb to herself. "Present."

"De Vasseur."

"Present."

"Ducrocq."

"Yeah," Mathieu said.

"You say 'present' or 'here'. None of this 'yeah' stuff, okay?" Jim said.

"Yeah, okay."

Nicholas drew back into the crowd and snuck over to Naomi. "Uh…hey, Naomi, how about having a fantastic and breath-taking experience together with me in the moonlight tonight."

"You gotta be kidding, you dork!" Naomi chastised.

After the role was taken, Jim turned over to the lesson. "Right. Today we're going to work the high-jump. For once I won't tell you that this sport will take you to great heights."

Cassidy felt a little dizzy. Aelita looked back and saw her roommate. "Are you okay, Cassidy?"

"Dizzy." To try to alleviate the vertigo, Cassidy squeezed her eyes shut.

"Just try to hold on," she whispered.

Ulrich looked at the two of them. "Is she okay?"

"She says she's dizzy. I don't think Jim would like it if Cassidy keeps getting imbalanced like this," Aelita explained.

"So just watch! DEMONSTRATION!" Jim ran and with a cry of jubilation, tried his luck at the high-jump.

There was a lot of laughter as Jim landed forcefully on the mat and then on the ground.

**-On the way to the infirmary-**

"I've told you over and over again, if you insist on doing this sort of thing, this is where you'll end up," Yolanda told him.

"Yeah it's an occupational hazard." Jim said. Yolanda had opened the door.

"I see you've already set Della Robbia home." Jim said.

Yolanda sounded confused. "Odd, but he hasn't been here at all."

Jim looked to Yolanda

"Oh..." his suspicions were rather high now.

**-In the Forest- **

Cassidy was listening to one of her favorite songs she had on her phone. She sat down by a tree, and Jim could be seen looking for someone.

"Della Robbia, where are you?" he exclaimed. With no response he then noticed Cassidy lying by the tree.

"McGuire!" Jim exclaimed. Cassidy didn't hear Jim due to having her ear buds in.

"McGuire!" Jim exclaimed once again his arms crossed one another.

"MCGUIRE!" Jim yelled. Cassidy, jumped and looked up, seeing Jim right next to her. She took off her ear buds.

"Yes Jim?" she asked.

"Where's Della Robbia?" Jim was firm.

Cassidy gulped. "Uh..."

"Just what I thought, come with me young lady. To the principal's office." Jim said. Jim walked with Cassidy, taking her to the principal's office. Next was Odd himself.

**-In Odd's room-**

Mr. Delmas opened the door, Jim along with him.

"Well what kind of lame-o speech did GI Jim bore you with today? That's about the only part I'm sorry I missed, but every other time he opens his mouth he cracks me up," Odd grumbled. Mr. Delmas bent down. "Well why don't we show a little laughter in my office now?"

"Uh oh." Odd looked up at Jim and Mr. Delmas, his vision hazy and eyes baggy. He rubbed them.

"Oh no, please tell me I am still sleeping and this is a nightmare." Odd begged.

Jim put his finger up and moved it to the left, then to the right and said, "Uh-uh. You're wide awake Della Robbia, but you're right about one thing this is your nightmare."

**-In the Principal's Office-**

"Disappointed, disappointed that's the only word for it. Cassidy, Odd I am deeply disappointed in both of you." Mr. Delmas said.

"I agree with that sir. These two took me for some sort of idiots." Jim said.

"Wait a minute, sir," Cassidy pointed a finger in the air.

Delmas looked crossly at her. "Yes, Ms. McGuire, we're waiting."

"Did Jim think Odd was in the infirmary?"

He looked to the gym teacher, who said, "I might've had my head scrambled."

"I only said that Odd was _sulking_, not _in the infirmary_," she corrected.

Delmas looked puzzled. "Do you have any proof, McGuire?"

"Yes I do! I just so happened to carry my iPod with me." She yanked out her iPod and her pink and purple headphones. "It comes with a microphone."

Delmas listened to the evidence. As soon as he was done, he said, "Well, since you didn't lie, I'll give you two ten minutes of detention."

That surprised her. "But why?"

"I don't want your friends to think that you got off the hook too easily," he winked with a Dumbledore-like smile.

As soon as Odd and Cassidy left the room, Jim counted his fingers. "Only ten minutes sir?"

"Yes. That's because I consider myself to be too-"

He was cut off as Jim said, "Too weak?"

Mr. Delmas looked straight at Jim and said, "Magnanimous."

**-Outside the office-**

Odd and Cassidy walked out of the administrative building, Odd looked over to her. "I can't believe you, Cassidy. You know I asked Aelita."

"Hey, my golden excuse worked before. And I just wanted some peace and quiet, so I decided on going to the woods. So should I have known that Jim would find me there?"

"If you would have taken the time, to think of a better place then the woods to get some peace and quite, then I wouldn't have ten minutes of detention." Odd said.

Cassidy got a little angered at Odd. "And if you were just a bit less selfish you would realize that I got stuck with ten minutes of detention too and for what? Because you need your sleep you lazy loser!"

Just then Nicholas had passed by the two.

"Uh hi there Cassidy, um how would you feel about having a fantastic breath-taking experience together in the moonlight tonight?"

Odd was about to say something, but he noticed that her eyes were closed.

_She's about to have another vision_, he thought.

"She's rather busy Nicholas, studying. But look if I were you why don't you try asking someone else okay?" Odd asked.

"I'd love to," Cassidy groaned, trying with everything to say it with feeling.

"Yeah okay." Nicholas said as he walked away.

After Nicholas was gone, Odd let out a sigh of relief. "Whew. That got rid of him. Right, Cassidy?" There was no response.

"Cassidy?" He looked down to see Cassidy on the ground.

"I can't believe it!" He grumbled as he dragged her to the infirmary. "We're stuck with her…We shouldn't _have_ this problem…She's a dangerous psychic!"

Before he got one foot in the door…

"Odd?"

He looked down at her.

"What's going on?" Cassidy asked.

"You should know!" Odd yelled. "You nearly had a vision."

A confused look crossed her features. "I—I don't remember. Odd, I don't remember." Tears welled up in her eyes. "Why are you yelling at me?"

Concern now swept Odd's plate. "You mean, you don't know why I'm yelling?"

"No, I don't!" She shook her head tears staining her pink shirt.

"Come on, Cat Girl, let's go to Jeremie."

**-In the Cafeteria-**

Ulrich ate the fries. "Yum, these fries are tasty."

Odd sat down, a bit mad still.

"Did I say something wrong?" Ulrich asked.

Odd looked over to Cassidy, and Odd grabbed some fries and threw them in his mouth.

"Well it looks as if we got a bit of a cold war on our hands." Yumi said. "Listen you two. Why don't you kiss and make up? We got more important things to worry about."

Aelita leaned and whispered, "Like exploring the network with the Skid some more?"

"That's right and especially to check out that sphere you came across on your first trip." Jeremie whispered.

Yumi leaned in on the whispering too, "Great! When do we go?"

"The longer we wait the stronger XANA gets so I say we try tonight. That is if our two friends are ready to bury the hatchet," Jeremie asked.

"As long as I don't have to talk to that dummy." Odd said.

"Odd, please don't yell at me," Cassidy made sad eyes, "when I have no clue what your yelling at me for."

Jeremie and the others looked at the psychic as if she would say "April Fools" and move on with a laugh.

"That's progress, I guess." Aelita said.

Nicholas came up to their table. "Hey, Cassidy, I was just making sure our plans are there."

"I'm so sorry, Nicholas, I don't remember making plans with you," Cassidy was guilty.

"Aw I knew it was too true to be good—I mean, you know." Nicholas walked over to his table and Hervé was reading a book and had his lunch around it.

"Uh listen, Hervé how would you feel about having a fantastic and breath-taking experience in the moonlight tonight?"

Hervé looked at his friend. "Huh?"

Back at with the group, Jeremie suddenly had an idea.

**-That Night-**

Nicholas was fishing and Hervé was watching.

"This is your fantastic and breath-taking experience?" Hervé asked.

They were by the bridge of the factory.

"A dumb fishing trip?" was the next question he had asked.

"Yeah you wouldn't believe how fantastic and breath-taking it can be to catch a big fat pike." Nicholas said using his fishing rod.

"And you're a clown fish you know that Nicholas?" Hervé asked.

Nicholas had put his finger on his mouth "Shush." he then put it down. "You'll scare the fish away if you talk too loud."

Hervé had decided on sitting down and Nicholas had looked up and saw Cassidy along with Odd running to the factory.

"Are you okay, Odd?" Cassidy asked looking back at Odd who was walking.

"Give it a rest huh?" Odd asked.

"What's Odd doing out at this hour?" Hervé asked.

"Cassidy said she didn't remember the plans with me." Nicholas said as he got up and put his fishing pole on the ground. "Hmm let's go."

**-In the Scanner room- **

The elevator's doors opened and Cassidy walked out of it.

Everyone looked up to the ceiling. "So, what's your plan, Jeremie?"

"_It's quite simple. Everyone besides Cassidy, enter into a scanner."_

Odd ran to the middle scanner and took it.

Yumi and Aelita each took the left and right scanners.

Ulrich decided to wait. "Tell me what you're going to do, Jeremie."

"_I'm going to copy each of the memories from today,"_ Jeremie announced.

"What?" Yumi exclaimed, about to jump out of the scanner.

"_Don't panic. Just go with it. This should help Cassidy."_

The aforementioned girl had a tired look in her eyes.

"What do you call this motion?" Odd asked.

"_I call it the Reverse Schyphozoa."_

"Who should do you, Jeremie?" Aelita asked.

"_Well, I was thinking that you could do it, Aelita."_

The three that took the scanners were scanned but not virtualized.

"_Okay, Ulrich, you're up!"_

"Are there any side-effects, Einstein?" Ulrich took the scanner that Odd occupied not too long ago.

"_No, I made some checks on the program. There are no side-effects whatsoever."_

Soon Ulrich's memory was copied.

Cassidy slumped against the wall. Yumi shook her awake. "We're nearly there, Cassidy."

The psychic nodded.

After Jeremie's memory was copied, Cassidy staggered into a scanner.

"_Okay, soon you'll see everything from our perspective,"_ Jeremie informed.

After the doors closed, the memories surrounded her and entered her ears. The block on her own memory dissolved.

When they opened, Cassidy walked out.

"Well, how do you feel?" Yumi asked.

"Better and, Odd…"

Odd looked to her in disdain. "Yes?"

"The excuse helped Jeremie when he was in Limbo!"

He growled and took the scanner she was in.

"Odd aren't you over doing it a little?" Yumi asked.

"Thanks, Yumi, it's obvious whose side you are on." Odd said.

Yumi cocked a brow, and it seemed Aelita was first transferred to sector 5.

"Incredible you think they were back in kindergarten." Ulrich said as Yumi and his scanner started to close on them. Cassidy had her arms crossed and Odd's soon closed, too.

"_Alright now cool it guys lets concentrate on our mission." _Jeremie said as he was beginning the transfer.

"_Transfer Ulrich, Transfer Yumi, Transfer Odd." _Jeremie said entering the appropriate buttons.

**-In Sector 5- **

"_Virtualization."_ Jeremie said. It can be shown that Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich were transferred and they landed. Soon Cassidy had landed as well next to Odd, he looked at her but then she turned her back on him crossing her arms. Odd sighed.

The 5 warriors went to the door and it opened. They had started to run throughout the hall and they soon made it to the elevator. The elevator had come down, and they had walked to it. They were being brought up by the elevator, and they were going to their positions.

"_Hurry over to your transporter spots." _Jeremie said.

The 5 warriors had gone on their rightful positions.

"Doesn't it freak you out to have a real loser at one of the NavSkids?" Odd asked.

Cassidy growled, and turned away from Odd.

"_Okay energize._" Jeremie said pressing a button.

5 beams of lights had come up from the transporter spots and they were put into their positions. Aelita had taken the controls, and the others had taken a NavSkid.

"Ulrich, do you mind asking that dorky friend of yours if he still remembers how to use the Skid?" Cassidy asked.

"Cut it out, Cassidy, just ask him yourself," Ulrich sighed.

"Good answer, Ulrich," Odd said.

"Hey, you're starting to get on my nerves, both of you." Ulrich said.

"Same here you two." Aelita said.

"Yeah, we had enough." Yumi said.

"_When you guys are all finished what do you say we take off? Supports away."_ Jeremie said. Soon the supports from which had lifted off. Aelita had pressed some buttons.

"Vertical propulsion operational."

The Skid's engines had started and they had started to fly out of the dome. Soon, they were at the unfinished desert sector.

"Ready to dive." Aelita said. They had dived toward the digital sea, they waited a little, and then the Skid went in. They had entered the digital sea.

"We're in the network Jeremie." Aelita informed her knight in glasses.

"_Holoweb system connected. Aelita set a course for 170 and look out for a hub." _Jeremie said.

"Gotcha." Aelita said increasing the speed of the Skid.

"_I'll enter the coordinates of the sphere that you guys saw during your last mission._"

"Hub in sight." Aelita said. The group came to the hub.

"_Are you ready?"_ Jeremie asked.

"Roger. Hyper fluid aspiration in 3 seconds." Aelita said. In no time at all they had dived down the hub.

**-With Nicholas and Hervé- **

Nicholas and Hervé had walked to the factory and they had spotted the ropes.

"This place is weird." Hervé said then he shivered. "Let's get out of here it gives me the creeps."

"Don't worry, I'm here." Nicholas said grabbing onto the rope then sliding down.

"Great glad to hear it." Hervé said as he reached for the rope, but was having trouble getting down. Nicholas had already gotten down.

"What are you doing up there? Come down." Nicholas said.

"I'm scared of heights." Hervé said while his eyes were shut. "I really get dizzy when I am high up."

"Don't worry you're only a few meters above the ground." Nicholas said.

"Nicholas would you shut up!" exclaimed Hervé.

"Stay where you are, I will come up and get you." Nicholas sighed in annoyance as he started to climb his way up.

"Oh no this isn't horrible. I don't want to die now I haven't got to tell Sissi that I am crazy about her."

**-Back in the others-**

The Skid was going through a red-like tunnel as and they had soon came out of the hub.

"Retro-brake." Aelita said pushing a button. The Skid had stopped, and she had turned on its lights.

"Lights operational." she said as she then continued on driving the Skid.

"Okay Jeremie we're coming to the sphere now." Aelita said.

"_Okay Aelita." _Jeremie said.

"_Check the south pole for an entrance portal like on Lyoko._" Jeremie said.

"I've got a visual on it." Aelita said.

They headed toward the entrance, but saw it was shut.

"It's shut, what do I do now?" Aelita asked, thinking of something and placed her hand on a hand scanner and said.

"Key activated." a blue beam of light was connected to the entrance.

"_There's an access code to crack. It's gonna take some a couple minutes."_ Jeremie said as he starting getting on the codes.

**-Back with Nicholas and Hervé-**

"You can let go now." Nicholas said.

Nicholas had started walking, and Hervé had let go of the rope.

"Remember what I said a minute ago about Sissi? Well I didn't really say it." Hervé said.

"Okay, I will tell Sissi that you said you really didn't love her."

"You know what I mean, I mean don't tell Sissi what I didn't say." Hervé said as he was walking to Nicholas who was about to press the button on the elevator. Hervé got in front of him though.

"Hold on, this looks really ancient. Think about it what if the cable snaps or the floor boards went under our feet?" Hervé asked as he begun on saying even more possibilities.

"Okay, okay I get the idea. We'll take the stair case." Nicholas said.

"You go look over there." Nicholas said. Hervé had sighed a breath of relief.

**-Back in the Lab-**

"Okay I cracked the code." Jeremie said pressing a button.

**-Back with the others-**

"Way to go Jeremie." Aelita said congratulating her knight in glasses.

The entrance portal had opened, and the Skid went inside. The Skid then came out of the digital sea, and it was a Replika of the forest sector. They flew high to see the ground, everyone was amazed.

**-Back in the Lab-**

"Unbelievable, you guys are on an exact copy of Lyoko except there's only one sector. The forest," Jeremie informed his friends.

**-Back with the others-**

"XANA created another Lyoko on the network? But why?" Aelita asked while looking around.

"Something tells me that it is something horrible," Cassidy inputted.

"Well, something tell your evil powers to take a break," Odd shouted.

**-Back in the Lab-**

"I have no idea, but you can bet it's not to save humanity and knowing our friend XANA, I'm sure he's making lots of other copies exactly like this one." Jeremie said sounding confident.

"_So what do we do check it out?" _Aelita asked.

"You bet, I want as much data as possible on this new virtual world." Jeremie said.

**-Back with the others-**

"Right, energize." Aelita said pressing some buttons. Aelita, then the others were soon on this new sector.

"Oh that's another forest territory. Well, I guess I am not out of the woods yet." Odd said.

"If we don't want him freaking out or crying, I guess someone should laugh at his jokes." Cassidy said.

**-Back with Nicholas and Hervé-**

"I wonder what Cassidy and Odd were doing here." Nicholas said. The two were close to the lab now.

"Well they're not here now so let's go." Hervé said as he started to walk back, but Nicholas put his hand up.

"Hold on, check out that light." he said spotting the light from the lab.

**-Back in the Lab- **

"Okay, what you're going to do now is work a group of two, and one with three. One goes exploring and the other watches the Skid." Jeremie said.

**-Back on the Replika-**

"Right forward I'll go with Ulrich, Yumi, or Aelita." Odd said.

"For once you got a good idea." Cassidy said.

"We've had it with you two. Ulrich and I are out of here, right now. We can use a vacation." Yumi said.

"Yeah, and you two can fight all you want too. As long as we're not around to hear it." Ulrich said.

"_Here come your vehicles."_ Jeremie said as their vehicles were brought up. The OverWing and the OverBike were shown.

"Thanks, Jeremie." Yumi was appreciative.

"See ya, have fun you two." Ulrich said as he drove off with his OverBike. Yumi hopped on the OverWing, and they drove off.

"Aelita, watch them closely to make sure they don't commit virtual homicide/suicide," Yumi told Aelita.

**-Back with Nicholas and Hervé-**

The two friends had starting walking to the light, but Hervé hit his foot on something.

"Ouch!" he exclaimed

"Shush." Nicholas said.

**-Back in the Lab-**

"Huh?" Jeremie had heard this.

**-Back with Nicholas and Hervé-**

"Sorry." Hervé said as he started to continue on walking. Nicholas looked at him.

-**Back in the Lab-**

Jeremie went to the ladder, and checked what was going on.

"False alarm I guess." he said. There was beeping on the computer.

**-Back on the Replika-**

Cassidy and Odd were both sitting on the ground, both looking away at one another. Cassidy had looked at Odd then turned away, Odd had done the same. Aelita was monitoring the two.

"Well anyway you could have thought of another place for some peace and quite, you know." Odd said. "And allowed Aelita to use her excuse."

Aelita turned back at the mention.

"And you can stop thinking about yourself for once." Cassidy sighed resignedly. "My excuse saved Jeremie and that's that, as well."

**-Back in the Lab-**

Jeremie went back to his control chair.

**-Back on the Replika-**

"_Odd, Megatank at three o'clock." _Jeremie informed him. Odd had gotten up as the Megatank had hit the Skid.

"_Oh no."_ Jeremie said.

Odd looked around and saw another Megatank.

"Cassidy watch out." he said as Cassidy moved out of the way at the incoming attack, which just like the first damaged the Skid.

"Thanks Ninja-Cat-Boy!" Cassidy gave a sigh of relief.

**-With Ulrich and Yumi-**

They were still driving but then Jeremie said, "_Ulrich, Yumi, XANA's attacking the Skid. We need you back here now." Jeremie said. _

"Got it Jeremie, we're on our way." Yumi said.

They had changed the direction they were going in.

**-Back in the Lab-**

"Odd, Cassidy, listen. The Skid's shield can't hold out for much longer." Jeremie said.

**-Back on the Replika-**

"_And without the Skid, I can't guarantee you a return ticket to the scanner." _Jeremie said. Odd was using his laser arrows on one of the Megatanks which opened up for another attack.

_Turn into a bow, and some arrows_ thought Cassidy.

Her tube turned into a white bow, and pink arrows. She started firing at the second Megatank, but it was no use. The Skid was still getting damaged.

Aelita tried an energy field.

"Jeremie can you generate more power to the shields, por favor?" Cassidy asked.

**-Back in the Lab-**

Jeremie had reached for the keys on the keyboard.

"I think so, but I need time. To renforce the Skid I'll need to reroute a chunk of energy from the supercomputer itself." Jeremie said.

**-Back on the Replika-**

"But isn't taking energy from the supercomputer kind of risky?" Cassidy asked as she changed her weapon into bazooka. She had fired it at the Megatank, which had exploded.

"_We have no choice, it's the only solution I can think of right now."_ Jeremie said.

Aelita generated a hive-like shield for the Skid.

"Say when you put your mind to it, you can come up with good ideas. Nice on Cassidy." Odd said giving her the thumbs up as he went to her. Cassidy smiled, but the two had looked over to the other Megatank. It used its attack on them, but deflected.

**-Back In the Lab-**

A blue bar was being shown.

"We won't have enough power to launch a return to the past. But because XANA hasn't attack anything in the real world, it shouldn't be necessary." Jeremie said.

**-Back with Nicholas and Hervé-**

"What if it's not their voices we are hearing?" Hervé asked.

"Who's voices do you think they are then? Ghost, werewolves, blood thirsty Draculas?" Nicholas asked.

"I wouldn't laugh at things like that especially at night time." Hervé said.

"It's ridiculous, then let's climb. If it's Odd and Cassidy, and I want to catch them red handed." Nicholas said determined.

The two had started to climb, and Hervé stomped on Nicholas's hand by accident.

"Ow! What's wrong with you?" Nicholas asked Hervé.

**-Back in the Lab-**

Jeremie had noticed this and popped up one of the video cameras, it was shown Nicholas and Hervé climbing the ladder.

"Uh oh." he zoomed onto them.

"_I bet they came here to do some industrial espionage." _Nicholas said.

"_Odd and Cassidy? Industrial spies? In an abandoned factory? What's wrong with you?" _questioned Hervé.

"_Well then maybe they are into witchcraft." _Nicholas said.

Jeremie had cocked a brow.

"I got a huge problem, at the factory. Hervé and Nicholas are on the verge of discovering the supercomputer and it's impossible too launch an return to the past." Jeremie informed.

**-Back on the Replika-**

"Huh? You can't let those nerds get near the supercomputer." Odd said as he dodged another laser by the Megatank.

"Take care of them Jeremie, we'll manage without you." Cassidy said.

Aelita agreed.

**-With Jeremie-**

Jeremie had used the elevator to get back up to the entrance of the factory, and ran over to the stair case. He had walked his way down, and made his way to the boiler room and he had seen, Hervé along with Nicholas.

Hervé began on climbing a ladder

"I'm not going any further, I'm stopping." he said.

"You're stopping half way up?" Nicholas asked.

Hervé's hands started to shake

"You better believe it."

Jeremie had dropped a pipe.

"Did you hear that? They're behind us now." Hervé said.

"Just head back down." Nicholas said. The two had starting climbing down the ladder, and Jeremie made sure that he should get out of there. As were down Nicholas only saw Jeremie's hair.

"Odd I saw you." he said. Nicholas had ran after Jeremie, while Hervé walked but had his suspicions.

**-Back on the Replika-**

The Megatank was somehow attacking fast. But soon, black smoke appeared from within the ground and it was revealed to be William.

"Uh oh, the Skid's done for if Handsome gets his hands on it." Odd said.

"I hope Jeremie had time to reinforce it." Cassidy said as she turned her tube into an invisibility cloak and disappeared.

"**Where, oh where did you go Cassidy?"** William asked.

Cassidy's virtual heart clenched.

**-Back in the Lab-**

The blue bar was almost fully loaded.

**-Back on the Replika- **

The Megatank had hit the Skid with it's blast.

"Sorry pal, but you're a little to late to wreck everything." Odd said. Cassidy was right behind William, and she kicked him to the ground. He fell down with an oof. Soon the Megatank that had been attacking exploded, from an attack by Cassidy.

William looked around for her, but decided onto head toward the Skid. Odd had shot William in the shoulder, with a laser arrow.

"Jeremie, reload me okay? Oh bummer I forgot he's not there." Odd remembered.

Odd jumped out of the way from William's next move, and soon William was kicked again by Cassidy.

Aelita chuckled.

"**Show yourself girl!" **William exclaimed.

**-With Jeremie-**

Jeremie was hiding somewhere in the sewers.

"You go that way, and I'll go this way." Nicholas said.

Nicholas and Hervé had started to walk both of the directions from across one of another. Jeremie went to hide somewhere else, and Nicholas heard a splash in the water. Nicholas jumped to the other side.

"Ah, ha! I got you!" Nicholas exclaimed.

"Help me will you, you idiot." Hervé surfaced.

Jeremie started to run another way, and Nicholas saw this but had let go of Hervé who fell back in the water.

**-Back on the Replika-**

Odd was dodging the attacks given by William, then a giant slash of energy from his sword sent him to the edge. He was hanging on, and William's sword disappeared into black smoke. Odd was hanging on the cliff side, but William stepped on him which made him fall.

Cassidy had revealed herself, and she turned her tube into two fans like Yumi.

"Odd." she said. She than threw the fans at him, and he had devirtualized.

**-In the scanner room-**

Odd sighed a breath of relief, while his scanner was opening. "Thanks, Cassidy."

**-Back on the Replika-**

Cassidy was now alone facing her ex, and a new Megatank, she remained strong. She had her tube turned into a bazooka again, but she missed her aim.

Aelita decided to give a visual.

William advanced. Cassidy turned to him. "I warn you, I'm loaded!" she growled.

But William didn't care. He ripped the weapons out of her hands and threw them off to the side.

Now she was weaponless.

"**A girl like you shouldn't be playing with weapons,"** he smiled in a way that made her virtual insides crawl.

Cassidy squeaked.

He stroked her face with his left hand.

Cassidy nearly surrendered when her heart pulled her out. "N-No!" She stuttered.

Then he started playing with her hair. That froze her solid.

Suddenly, Yumi's fan hit William's wrist.

Ulrich had gotten off his OverBike and this crashed with the Megatank sending them both to the digital sea. Ulrich used his super speed to get to Cassidy, carried her over to Aelita's side, then said, "Everyone knows that speeding is dangerous," taking out his katanas.

**-Back with Jeremie- **

Jeremie had gotten back to the elevator

"Come on move it," he commanded under his breath. The elevator had come up, and he went in pressing the button to go down.

Nicholas and Hervé had arrived a little late.

"Looks as if the elevator looks just fine." Nicholas was so proud of himself.

**-Back with Jeremie again-**

The elevator opened, and Odd was sitting on the floor.

"Jeremie, you're back I—" he was cut off by Jeremie.

"Hold on, I got to shut off the elevator down." Jeremie said running to the computer, and the screen showed that he had indeed shut it down.

**-With Nicholas and Hervé-**

Nicholas had pressed the button a couple of times, but it was no use.

"Well no big deal, we'll just wait them out. They'll have to come back this way." Nicholas said.

**-Back in the Lab-**

"Hervé and Nicholas must have seen you coming to the factory with Cassidy and now they're looking for you." Jeremie said.

"If it is Cassidy and I they are after, I got an idea that should get rid of them. But I will need for Cassidy to get back here ASAP." Odd said.

"Okay, I will let her know." Jeremie said.

**-Back on the Replika-**

William starting walking backward.

"Better face facts William. You're not going to win this time." Ulrich said.

"Yeah William, you're out numbered." Aelita said.

"So outnumbered," Cassidy stuttered.

"Yeah!" William exclaimed as he disappeared into black smoke, and went into the digital sea.

"_Ulrich, we got an emergency here. You'll have to devirtualize Cassidy."_ Jeremie informed.

"Let me guess Odd's plan?" Cassidy asked.

"_Let me guess, another vision?"_ Jeremie teased a little.

"Yes." Cassidy said.

"No sweat I'll devirtualize you on 3." Ulrich said aiming his sword.

Cassidy prepared herself.

"One, two," he devirtualized her on two.

**-In the scanner room-**

The scanner had opened, and Odd was waiting.

"Hello." Odd smiled, as Cassidy did too.

**-Back with Nicholas and Hervé-**

"Well what now?" Hervé asked.

"Be patient, like when you are fishing." Nicholas said.

Hervé sighed and started to pace near the elevator.

**-Back with Cassidy and Odd-**

"Okay, but you're really lucky my vision told me about this." Cassidy said her arms crossed. "And don't be afraid to dip me if you feel brave enough!"

"Well I guess we're good then?" Odd asked.

Cassidy thought about it, and smiled.

**-Back with Hervé and Nicholas-**

Hervé was pacing near the elevator when it had started to come up. Nicholas smiled, and made a movement with both of his hands.

"You'll see the early worm catches the bird, I mean fish." Nicholas said as the elevator came to a stop. It was shown to the two boys that Cassidy and Odd were kissing each other on the lips, Odd dipping her as planned.

"Hey you guys enjoying the show?" Odd asked.

Nicholas and Hervé had decided on leaving them alone. Cassidy and Odd had laughed.

"So that's why they were hiding in the factory." Nicholas said.

"They like each other." Hervé said.

**-Back in the Lab-**

"You look awfully serious." Yumi said.

"What's wrong?" Aelita asked.

"I'm just worried about this Lyoko copy. If there is one out there, maybe there's also another supercomputer infected with XANA somewhere else on Earth. To destroy this new supercomputer, I'm gonna have to figure out some sort of way to materialize you into the real world to find the copy." Jeremie said.

"Relax Einstein we'll handle that when the time comes." Ulrich said.

"Are you sure, that's your only worry?" Yumi asked.

"You see guys, if it weren't for Cassidy being here Aelita would have had to kiss me. So Einstein would have found out what it means to have an open mind." Odd said.

Cassidy and Odd laughed, but this left confusion to Aelita, Ulrich, and Yumi.

**-With Nicholas and Hervé-**

"So, now you got eye witness proof that Cassidy is going out with Odd? That's the dumbest story I have ever heard since the one about Mr. Chardin's toupee. Besides after from her break up with William, she wouldn't go back into dating so soon." Sissi said.

"But I told you I saw them, it's not a story it's true. Look here they come." Hervé pointed.

"You dumbbell," Odd said passing by Cassidy.

"Who's talking you selfish loser, hmph." Cassidy walked away.

Hervé had received a slap on the face and Nicholas had laughed.

**-With Cassidy and Odd-**

Cassidy and Odd were by a tree.

"I think that put an end to any ridiculous gossip, do you agree, mi amigo?" Cassidy asked.

"Yeah I do, but well I don't think your heart was in it when you called me a selfish loser." Odd said.

"What? Now listen here, Odd-" Cassidy was cut off by Odd as he said

"Chill out, I'm just kidding." Odd had started to walk and so did Aelita. "Well it doesn't take much to wind you up."

Cassidy punched Odd's shoulder jokingly, the two had ran then laughed.

"I'm gonna get you." Cassidy said.

**A/N: I'm so sorry this almost didn't get done, but thanks to LyokoWarrior1994, I got it done. Please R&R his stories as well as mine. :) Thank you! :)**


	51. Well, Jim would rather not talk about it

**This reminds me of a time…**

**…but I'd rather not talk about it.**

**Aren't we all tired of Jim saying this? **

**Aw well, you know the drill by now…**

**I don't own Code Lyoko. I do own Cassidy.**

**On with it!**

**-During the night-**

Cassidy gasped and sat bolt upright, wiping the sweat off of her forehead. Her heart hammered frantically in her chest, as if trying to escape the horrors of the nightmare- the _sixteenth _nightmare, the same one that she had had been having for weeks. She quickly discovered that her hands had been gripping the covers and relaxed them, wiping her sweaty palms on the bedspread.

_Geez! Can't this girl get a night of rest for once?_ Cassidy did everything she could to keep the nightmares away. She swore off caffeine, grounded herself from reading anything that was scary, kept herself from playing bloodcurdling games with Odd, she tried to occupy her time by doing strange chores, but she still had the same old nightmare.

She looked to Aelita, who seemed to be sleeping peacefully, and almost swore that she could hear her mumble Jeremie's name.

_At least_ she_ seems to be having nice dreams,_ Cassidy thought.

She felt her forehead and winced at the touch. _Jeepers, I'm burning up!_

She grabbed some aspirin and a cup and made her way to the girls' bathroom, thankful that during the journey Sissi wasn't up at this profane hour.

She downed the pills in one gulp and splashed cold water on her face.

"It's just a dream," she repeated to herself. "Just" _splash_ "a" _splash_ "stupid" _splash_ "little dream."

Cassidy grabbed a towel when the door opened. She jumped when she turned and saw that it was…

"Oh, hi Emily," she said in a flat tone, not in the mood to talk.

"Hello, Cassidy. Did you have a bad dream, too?"

"You read my mind." She sighed. "This time it was clearer and came with a fever."

"It's okay, we all get them. But to you it's unusual." Emily went over and splashed cold water on her face.

"Yeah. I mean, I swore off anything that could trigger it-" She bit back an _even tried to stop going to Lyoko_ and continued. "-but I ended up screwing up for some reason."

"Aw, well, you can see Mr. Klotz tomorrow." Emily dried her face.

"Is that what you do when you get a nightmare?" she asked.

"All the time. I once scared him to the point of a 'Don't return here and go to the therapist in town'," she said, a tone of remembering in her voice.

"Your dream probably was worse than mine. I can't even figure mine out," Cassidy sighed.

"Ah, it was," Emily smiled a little, and then explained her dream in colossal, gruesome detail.

Cassidy paled. _Yep, definitely w-worse than mine._

After she was done, Cassidy was backed up against a corner, stomach churning uneasily.

"Okay?"

"Mr. Klotz did the same thing to my last nightmare."

Cassidy felt bile rising in her throat. "Um…excuse me, Emily. I need to um…Technicolor _yawn_." She ran to the nearest toilet and yakked.

Emily shrugged a little, turning away. "Sensitive stomach. It happened with Mr. Klotz, too. He didn't see me for three weeks after that."

Her supper from the night before, which was Odd's favorite (meatballs and gravy), had just revisited.

She panted and coughed. "Emily…promise me something…"

"What is it?"

"Never describe your dreams to me like that ever again." After that fleeting sentence, Cassidy slumped into a faint.

**-Early the next day-**

Jeremie was about to start off the runners when Cassidy walked to him, whey-faced and shaky, as if she had something caught in her throat.

"What happened to you?" he raised a brow in concern.

"Four words, Einstein: Emily and her nightmare." she hacked into the bushes beside them.

"She used gruesome detail, didn't she?"

Jeremie Belpois was familiar with Emily's nightmares. Once, when he was the newest genius at Kadic and had a nightmare, he bumped into her by accident. She gave off the most gruesome nightmare this side of the Pecos. He had a hard time holding down his lunch that day. No one questioned it.

"It was worse than my recurring nightmare." She shook her head.

"I don't think running will help you." Jeremie had his friend sit down. "When she shot off her nightmare, and I tried to go to Phys Ed, I nearly fainted doing the exercises."

After he started up the runners, Jeremie started his stopwatch.

"Our friends might not like this," Cassidy said.

**-Meanwhile-**

Kiwi was leading the runners. Ulrich was in a lead with Yumi right behind him. Aelita and Odd followed. All were worn out and panting.

**-Back to Jeremie-**

"Come on! Let's move it a little faster!" Jeremie barked. "Faster!"

Under normal-ish circumstances, Cassidy would've cheered.

**-Back to the tired-out gang-**

"I don't believe this. He's trying to kill us!" Aelita panted.

Odd tried to run but ended up on the ground near Jeremie and Cassidy's feet. Kiwi sniffed his master.

Everyone else was also collapsed around the one standing.

Jeremie stopped his watch. "You guys are ridiculous. You're way too slow! What a bunch of snails."

Cassidy nearly retched into the bushes again.

"Except for Cassidy, whom I excused. And you, Odd." Jeremie bent down at his level. "Even a snail runs much faster than you."

Odd stood up and panted, "Since when does the…least-athletic person in the world thinks he's better than I am? And why does Cassidy get special privileges…to sit out whenever she wants?"

Ulrich was next to stand up. "Hey, that's true. Getting a little carried away, aren't you, Einstein?"

Kiwi growled at Jeremie.

He shrugged. "Don't blame me. The stopwatch doesn't lie, you guys. And to answer Odd: Emily had a nightmare."

**-At the Quad-**

"That was even worse than the last time. How do you expect to beat XANA if you don't speed it up?" Jeremie reprimanded the four on the bench.

Cassidy was trying to hold down some saltines she got from the nurse, but ran to the nearest trashcan.

Odd shrugged and folded his arms. "You're a real comedian, Einstein. All you do is time us. Anybody could do that."

The aforementioned girl staggered back to collapse at Jeremie's feet.

"Didn't I warn you not to listen to Emily's nightmares?" Ulrich asked as he helped Cassidy to her feet.

"You only half-warned me. You got distracted." Her brown eyes blinked weakly. "You said: _"And whatever you do…"_ then Odd threw a pillow at you and that was the end of that. I spent a whole month getting feathers out of my hair. Sissi thought I caught the feathers from nature."

Jeremie had his arms crossed in front of his chest. "One thing is for sure; if you guys don't get into shape you're never going to get any stronger and XANA—"

"—will gain headway and beat us," Cassidy finished in a dull tone.

"Exactly. But if you think of another trainer, be my guest."

"I try, Jeremie, when I train. Truly I do."

"Just today wasn't your day, I know, Cassidy."

"Maybe there's a better—a better way of getting in shape," Yumi suggested.

He turned to the side. "I get it. You're just…badly trained. And you guys can't keep up, it's my fault."

"Well yeah," Odd, Aelita, Yumi, and Ulrich said at once.

"Fine. I may not be the best trainer in the world, but you have to admit, you don't exactly listen to me," Jeremie said.

"I do," Cassidy shifted her eyes back.

"That's true, too. Maybe we need to find someone else. A specialist," Yumi suggested.

"A specialist? Do you mind telling me where I would expect to find one?"

Cassidy smiled a little. _Three, two, one…_

Aelita sparked an idea with a smile on her face.

**-At Jim's room-**

Jim opened the door. "Now just what do you think you're doing here? Can't a man have a little peace and quiet even on a Saturday?"

"Well, it's simple. Although, well, uh…you might think this is a little crazy," Jeremie started.

"Nothing could surprise me since I orbited the Earth. Spit it out Belpois."

Jeremie put his hands together indecisively, as if it were a complicated chemistry program. "Um…well, we heard that you were once a Special Forces Trainer."

"That's right, Special Forces, ensign, Secret Division force." Jim laughed, remembering as he paced to his right. "Ah those were the good old days." He took a tiny moment to pause. "But, with that being said, I'd rather not talk about it."  
Cassidy started to slump on the floor when Yumi held her up.

"Would you be willing to train students, like us, Jim?" the genius of the group asked.

He turned around. "Train students?"

"Y-Yeah, for like a commando camp like your—um…your special interventions thingamajig."

"Neato, meet me at the Red Cross Trail Crossroads at fifteen hundred hours sharp. Dress for sports," Jim said.

"You mean like, today already?" Yumi was shocked and nearly dropped Cassidy.

"It touches me that the students recognize one of the benefits of my experience and skill, especially you, Belpois," Jim clapped a hand on Jeremie's shoulder. "I never imagined that anyone could turn _you_ into a man. A real one."

He put his hands up. "No, you don't understand. I was talking about training the others. Not for me."

"This training course is for everybody. Fifteen hundred hours, and I want you guys to be on time, ya hear?" Jim closed the door.

Ulrich and Aelita smiled, Yumi laughed, Cassidy collapsed on the floor, and Odd said, putting a hand on Jeremie's shoulder, "Ha. This will do wonders for you, Jeremie. Now you'll be able to put your stopwatch away for a little while! Alright!"

**-Later but not at three o'clock-**

"This is stupid. I can't do a commando camp. I've got a ton of other things on my plate," Jeremie stopped underneath the Arches.

Yumi had a different idea. "I think you're just afraid of sweating a little."

Cassidy was trying to hold down her stomach. Emily's  
bloodcurdling nightmare was still fresh in her mind.

"What if XANA attacks while we're training," Jeremie worried.

"Just bring your computer with you, that's all," Ulrich turned back.

Aelita came up to her knight in glasses. "Don't worry, Jeremie. Jim's commando camp can't possibly do us any harm, huh?"

"With Jim, you never can tell." He sighed.

**-With Jim's commando camp-**

"I have never seen a weaker pack of legless slugs in my life. Fifteen hundred hours sharp does not mean fifteen zero two or fifteen zero three—"

"Oh, we're not going to split hairs over a few seconds, huh?" Odd asked. "My watch…"

"Your watch doesn't walk with me, Della Robbia. I give the orders around here, so straighten up!" Jim commanded. "Okay, let's go make our way to the combat clearing where we'll start off with some basic training. Like pushups." He ran off with the others not too far behind him.

Cassidy's stomach growled and gurgled. Aelita took immediate concern. "You sure you want to do this in your condition? You're hungry and haven't been able to hold anything down today."

"I'll try, but in case of emergency, there are bushes everywhere," she nodded.

The pink-haired girl looked to Jeremie. "You know, I wonder if it was a mistake to recruit Jim."

"No, Aelita, it wasn't just a mistake. It was a big, colossal mistake," Jeremie said as soon as Cassidy was running.

**-In the combat clearing-**

"…thirteen…fourteen…fifteen…"

The Lyoko Warriors held the fifteenth pushup.

"Hold that fifteen! Hold it…hold it, I said." Jim paced around.

Jeremie collapsed…and soon after, Cassidy followed.

Jim then turned around. "Alright, alright. One, two, three, four. On your feet. Breathe in, breathe out." He mimed jumping rope. "Easy does it. Easy does it. Two, three, four, five."

Aelita, Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and Cassidy followed.

The pink-haired girl looked to her knight in glasses in concern. "Jeremie, are you okay?"

"Not really, I feel awful," Jeremie was sitting down.

A splitting headache hit the psychic girl.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing, Belpois? This is only the beginning. By the time I'm through with you, you're going to be a man," Jim told him. "So get up, now!"

Jeremie did so.

"Jim, don't you think you're overdoing it? We want training, not torture," Yumi came in.

"Wrong again, young lady. You guys are all participating in Jim's boot camp."

Cassidy's stomach kept gurgling.

"And that means two things: you sweat, and you don't complain, unless you want ten extra pushups! From this moment on, we're going to live and die as a group. Got it?"

Odd came up. "Okay, okay! No need to get carried away."

"You got it, Odd?" Jim got in Odd's face.

Everyone stood at attention. "Sir, yes, sir."

Jim looked at everyone as if everyone shot off the wrong answer to his question, and then ran off. "Okay, let's move. Three-mile run!"

He coached every step. "One, two…"

Odd, Cassidy, and Jeremie lagged behind. Odd was holding his sides. "Oh, my poor stomach. I should've never taken seconds of the tuna casserole after the beef stroganoff."

"You think you've got it bad, Odd. I'm so hungry and still can't hold down solids," Cassidy frowned.

They kept walking up an embankment when Jim circled back around them. "Get those knees up, you soft-shell crabs, come on! Hey, Belpois, you couldn't even outrun a one-legged chicken!"

The three picked up the pace as Jim chuckled.

"Left, right, left, right!" He chanted to the three.

"At this rate, we'll need at least a week to recover from Jim's camp," Aelita commented as the three made it to the top. Odd and Jeremie hung onto each other to keep from collapsing. Cassidy felt bile rising again. "Odd, pass this onto Jim. I'm…about to laugh at the lions!" She dashed off.

Odd panted a hoarse laugh.

"It's kinda useless." Aelita looked at the now-two.

"Young lady, it—hey where's McGuire?"

"She said something about laughing at lions and ran off, Jim," Odd panted.

Jim didn't look at all convinced. "Take five. I need to find McGuire."

He rushed off into the bushes.

"McGuire…Cassidy?" He looked into the brush and found Cassidy giving an oral sacrifice at the altar of the porcelain god all over a shrub, then losing consciousness.

Jim's heart pitied the girl. "Poor girl." He picked her up effortlessly and carried her.

"Is she okay?" Yumi asked as they passed by.

"She lost her lunch and fainted." Jim kept running until he was a tiny dot in the horizon.

"And she hasn't said one Spanish word all day," Jeremie noted, breath restored.

**-Meanwhile-**

Cassidy became aware of a cold sensation in her veins. _What's going on? Why do my veins feel cold?_

She peeled her eyes open to take in the inside of a green tent. "What am I doing here?" She half-slurred.

"You got dehydrated, looked for O'Rourke, and fainted," a voice nearly made her jump.

She looked to see the gym teacher-turned-commando boss. "Jim?"

"Yes, McGuire, it's me. What happened out there? You're usually semi-best in my class." She could hear the concern in his voice.

"I'm not trying to be a snitch, but, Emily had a bad dream last night…"

"Say no more. I know exactly what you need." He shuffled around the contents of the tent, trying to find the items needed to help the sick girl, but found nothing.

"I'll go to Yolanda and get the supplies. I thought that I had them here!"

He dashed out. Cassidy started itching at the tape attached to her arm. "The water is so cold in my arm."

She couldn't rip the tape off.

A pink-haired head popped into the tent. "How are you feeling?"

"Arm feels cold, stomach feels sick, head is hurting, Jim says I'm dehydrated, I'm still screaming at the carpet—and that's just about it," Cassidy said.

Aelita sat down next to her and felt her forehead. "Rats, you're burning up!"

"That aspirin I took when I had my nightmare—milder than Emily's, I'm telling you—didn't last long, did it?" She was resigned to the fact.

"These nightmares have to stop," Aelita advised.

"I know. I try swearing off things that apparently cause nightmares and doing weird chores. That's why you saw me raking the campus the other day. But they keep coming back. It's _eviler_ than XANA," she said.

"We'll find a way soon."

She shifted her attention to one of the folds of the tent. "I hope so."

Just then, Jim came in with the supplies.

Aelita left the tent, saying a quick farewell to her friend.

"Okay, Yolanda says this will help you feel better and put your stomach right," Jim said as he got them out of the bag. It was an IV bag.

She didn't have the strength to refuse it. "I didn't know that you were a medical professional, Jim."

"Yep, it happened when I was in the Secret Service."

"Something curious comes to mind, Jim. How come when it's only me and you—student and gym teacher/commando captain—you feel like you would rather talk about it, but when I'm with others—like my friends or in with groups of students—you stay secret?" Cassidy wasn't aware that Jim finally found a vein and had begun to insert the second IV.

"That's what I think, too. I think it has to deal with when you came, my closed book came open."

Cassidy felt something fiery in her veins. "Really?" Her eyes became a little drowsy. "Wow…"

"You're not too shy on things either, McGuire. You took to Belpois, Della Robbia, Stones, Ishiyama, and Stern immediately."

Everything around Cassidy blurred. "It's in my nature."

"Well, you rest now, okay? Everything will be okay, McGuire."

Everything went black.

Jim sighed and then left the tent. "She would've been a great soldier."

He went back to the group, and continued his talk to Aelita. "Young lady, it's adversity that creates strength and courage, and that's the shortest path to fame and glory."

He ran through Yumi and Ulrich, who both had backed out of the way and looked to Jeremie, Aelita, and Odd, saying "hup" repeatedly.

Aelita looked a bit cross.

**-Next-**

Odd had a hard time pulling up and fell flat on his back.

"Cut the clowning, Della Robbia. This is not a circus," Jim told him.

**-Later-**

Ulrich was almost to the top, but his vertigo was getting to him.

"Stern, don't be a wimp. You've got nothing to be afraid of except a sore bottom."

**-With Jeremie's challenge-**

Jeremie's vertigo also got to him.

"Come on, Belpois. No use hanging there like a wet sock on a clothesline!"

**-During crawling-**

Jeremie was doing fine and so was Odd. Yumi got her PE shirt and pants caught on the barbed wire.

"Move it. Get the lead out and crawl. Faster, ya hear!" Jim commanded.

**-The balance test-**

Jeremie and Odd were doing fine with balance. Aelita, though she didn't mean to, went off-balance and fell flat on her back.

"Stones! I said _on top of it_."

Jim stopped his stopwatch. "Not bad for the first time."

Aelita regrouped with her friends, a hand on her back.

He looked to the now-five. "Right, let's take a little break here, and then start a new workout."

As soon as the six were lounging on the grass, Yumi picked up a subject. "Hey, you know what, Jim? We'd love to hear about your past life. I know you usually don't want to talk about it, but since it's just between us members of the same commando group…"

Jim cleared his throat, resting his arm on his knee. "Right, well then, listen up. Exceptionally to you, I'll give you a quick rundown. It all began when I completed my training to become a visual education instructor. I was also a licensed Scuba diver. And that's why the marines recruited me for their special forces. NASA heard of me and, since I was a Special Forces diver, they had me test out their space suits underwater. So after having received a medal from the president, I was then appointed to the Secret Service. Heh, heh…"

**-On Lyoko's Forest Sector-**

A tower in the Forest Sector turned red.

**-Back to Jim's interesting story-**

"…and believe me, Rosita Banana didn't just play the accordion, she was also one heck of a pilot. When I arrived at Buenos Aires with my cameras her bi-plane bowled me over."

Jeremie heard his laptop beep. Jim checked his stopwatch. "Right, break time is over now. A quick trot to shake off the rest." He then started jogging with Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and Aelita not too far behind him, repeatedly saying, "Hup", then, "Come on, people, let's move it out."

Jeremie opened his laptop bag, took out his computer, and saw…

"An activated tower," he said. "We gotta end this circus, right now!"

He put away his laptop and looked to see the others gone. "Huh? They're already ahead of me." He put his bag on his shoulder. "Come on, you can do it, Jeremie," he coached himself.

**-With Jim-**

Jim and the others were running down an incline when they stopped to see what looked to be a big pig. Its behavior looked normal.

"Uh, what kind of beast is that?" Ulrich stammered.

"How about that, a wild pig," Jim was impressed.

Yumi, with the others, backed away from him. "But it's _huge._ Let's go another way!"

Jim looked back at his trainees. "Oh, relax, it's nothing. I handled much worse than this back in Burma."

The pig began to charge but the gym teacher kicked it out of the Lyoko Warriors' way. It tried again, but Jim jump-rolled out of the pig's line of attack.

It turned around, blinked twice. In its eyes was the **eye of XANA.**

Ulrich took notice. "Did you see it?"

"XANA!" Yumi said.

They ran to Jim's side.

"Hey, listen, Jim. It's not a normal animal!" Ulrich pointed in the pig's general direction.

"It's not a wild boar!" Aelita cautioned.

"Right, it's what I said. Just an overgrown pig," Jim said. "That's all." He turned his attention to the boar. "Come to Jim, little piglet. Here, little piggy."

Yumi's concerns were raised. "No, I'm telling you, Jim. We'd much be better off getting out of here."

Jeremie ran from the other side of a tree.

Aelita turned her head to him.

Jim looked to Jeremie.

The pig charged at the newest target.

He got in between them. "Look out, Belpois!"

He landed into the bushes.

"Jim! Jim, are you okay?" Jeremie knelt beside his gym teacher.

"Yeah, uh, sure how's the other guy?" Jim was in a daze.

The beast charged again, but this time, Ulrich picked up a rock and hurled it at the pig.

"Wow!" Odd was amazed. "Nice shot!"

Aelita was impressed. "Hey, Ulrich, you got a great arm."

The XANAfied boar was not happy. Ulrich backed away. "I'll create a diversion."

"Good thing you've got fast legs, too! GO!" Yumi ordered her boyfriend.

Ulrich did as he was told and the boar followed.

"XANA sent this thing after us. We've got no time to lose. Get to the computer lab. Aelita can manage the virtualization process. Hurry up!" Jeremie ordered.

Aelita looked to her knight in shining glasses. "But what about you?"

"I better stay here with Jim and gather Cassidy at the medical tent," Jeremie said. "If Ulrich can't meet you guys, then all three of you are going to be needed on Lyoko."

Odd, Yumi, and Aelita dashed off. "Good luck," said his sweetheart.

"Jim!" He shook Jim. "Get up, Jim. I'll help you and Cassidy."

"Yes, Mr. President. The mission has to go on, whatever it takes. Even if it costs me my stripes," Jim was still in a stupor.

Jeremie looked at him as if he had bats in the belfry.

**-With the three runners-**

Yumi took the lead with Aelita and Odd not too far behind her.

Suddenly Yumi took a right. "This way. It's a shortcut."

**-Meanwhile-**

Ulrich ran from the boar and climbed the wires to the top.

"Hey, it's not so hard with a little training."

**-With Aelita, Odd, and Yumi-**

They crawled underneath some low-hanging branches.

"Come on," Aelita said.

"You can do it, Yumi," Odd called to her.

Yumi was a little unsure, but crawled with her two friends.

**-With Ulrich and the boar-**

The boar backed up and ran away from Ulrich.

He took out his cell phone and called…

"Jeremie…I'm okay, but the boar is heading back your way. I'm off to join the others," Ulrich informed.

** -With Jeremie, Jim, and Cassidy-**

Jeremie hung his phone up. Jim rubbed his head, and Cassidy was still sleeping.

He looked to the outside of a cave. "We have to find a way to conceal our hiding place. I'll camouflage it with some branches."

Jim had a hand on his knee. "Give me a minute to get my strength back and I can help you. My leg is fine. I'm ready to walk again." He tried to get up but let out a yelp of pain and sat back down.

"No, Coach. Don't move. I'll take care of it," Jeremie went off.

**-Back with Yumi, Aelita, and Odd-**

Yumi, Aelita, and Odd ran across a log. Aelita held her balance greatly.

**-Back with Jeremie, Cassidy, and Jim-**

After Jeremie set up the last branch, he opened it up and went inside.

Cassidy started to wake up. "W-What happened?"

"You were sleeping, Cassidy," Jeremie smiled a little.

She blinked wearily. "Why do I still feel drowsy?"

Jim looked to the IV bags that he had hung on a transportable hook.

"You're drowsy because the medication is still running, McGuire." He tried to stand but slumped down again.

"Jim…"

"Let me explain," Jeremie told Jim.

So he explained what she had missed.

Suddenly, her powers clicked on. "Oh…well, at least I don't feel like yelling at Ralph in sign language."

"And this is horrible. I feel completely useless," Jim lamented, "with this stupid broken leg I got."

"Your knee is completely swelled up," Jeremie noted. "You'll need an X-Ray to see whether or not it's broken. I'm going to have to immobilize it or it's going to hurt even worse." He gathered some twigs.

"Ulrich's going to join Aelita, Odd, and Yumi, right, Jeremie?" Cassidy tapped her friend's shoulder.

"Yes, he is."

"Something tells me that the center Colby Jack Cheese is going to almost rot," she whispered in all seriousness.

Jeremie nodded and retrieved a handkerchief from his laptop bag. Before he tore it, he stopped. _I better give Cassidy something to do._

"Hey, Cassidy?"

"Yes?" she looked to him.

"Do you have your USB Drive on you?" Jeremie asked.

"Yes, I do." She pulled out a bluish flash-drive from her pocket.

He handed her his laptop. "I trust you not to mess with the various programs on my computer."

"I won't." She inserted her purple and pink headphones (also in her pocket) and the flash-drive into his laptop.

As soon as Cassidy was typing, Jeremie resumed his work.

**-With Odd, Aelita, and Yumi-**

Odd, Aelita, and Yumi made it to the Red Trail Crossroads and stopped.

"We're almost there," Yumi panted.

Odd stood up from where he was. "Okay, just one last sprint. The factory's not much further."

The three started to run again. XANA was at an all time high priority.

**-With Jeremie, Cassidy, and Jim-**

Jeremie finished the wrapping on Jim's knee. Cassidy advised while typing on her stories:

_Vanessa had fear in her stomach, but fury at her heart. She didn't know which emotion to feel._

_She decided at fury. "I didn't want this, and you were so determined to get me that you shot my brother with a tranquilizer dart to prove it. Do you want to know what I think of it? I think it is despicable. You worthless Danger trashes are despicable! You think you have got the Jewel when all along you are so power-hungry, you got nothing."_

Jim looked over her shoulder. "Wow, McGuire. You have very good writing skills."

She smiled. "It's not too complicated."

As soon as Jeremie was done, Jim smiled. "Very good splint there, Belpois! I haven't seen work like that in a long time." A hint of a suspicious tease crossed him. "You never worked for the Magyar Commandos did you?"

"Jeremie…as a spy?" Cassidy pressed enter. "That'll be the day."

Jeremie smirked. Cassidy was starting to get better.

"No, just a question of common sense. An injured joint won't get any worse if it doesn't move," he told Jim.

"Exactly," Jim smiled. "You would've made a good soldier, Belpois, if only you had a little more muscle. And you, too, McGuire, but with stamina."

"Maybe you don't know this, but the brain is kinda like a muscle and that's the one in particular that I've been exercising the most," Jeremie pointed to his head.

**-At the factory-**

Odd, Aelita, and Yumi raced for the supercomputer in the Lab. Aelita took the hot-seat immediately.

"Come on! Every second counts!" Yumi hastened for her to hurry on the keys.

She typed. "I'm on it, but I'm not as fast as Jeremie."

A window popped up, showing the Chamber to the Core of Lyoko. Aelita took a little gasp. "XANA's sent William and some monsters into the Core Chamber."

**-In the Chamber to the Core of Lyoko-**

William flew with his Manta around the others and thrust his sword forward.** "Fire!"**

The Mantas fired at the Core's protective shield layers.

**-Back to the Lab-**

"You two, get down to the scanner room. You'll have to protect the Core of Lyoko," Aelita commanded.

"But what about the tower," Yumi asked.

"I guess I'll have to manage that alone."

The elevator opened again.

"No, not alone. Old, reliable Ulrich is here." The samurai boy stepped forth.

"Ulrich!" Yumi rejoiced.

He got within hugging distance of her. "I shook off the wild boar, but it went back into the forest. I'm afraid it could find Jim, Cassidy, and Jeremie."

"We better not waste any time," Aelita said.

**-Back to Jim, Cassidy, and Jeremie-**

Jim, Cassidy, and Jeremie were just sitting in their shelter when the former found a leaf on the Kadic K of his sweatshirt. He took a sniff at it upon picking it up and passed it on to Cassidy. "It's got a funny smell."

She took it and sniffed. "I know the smell, but I think Jeremie should take this one." She passed it on to her friend.

He sniffed it as soon as he grabbed it. "Peppermint. My parents have some of it in their garden."

Cassidy gasped, making a typo in her writing. "The boar's sense of smell! He'll come back for us!"

"He sure will. There's a good chance of that…" Jim trailed off.

**-To the Scanner Room-**

Odd and Yumi raced for each of the scanners. Yumi took the center one while he took the one to her right.

_"Are you ready?"_ Aelita asked.

Ulrich had a determined-angry look on his features that turned into a smile.

_"Transfer, Odd, Transfer, Yumi. Scanner, Odd, Scanner, Yumi. Virtualization."_

The two were sent to Sector 5.

_"I already called up your vehicles. They'll be waiting for you at the Celestial Dome. No time to lose."_

"Got it." Yumi took the lead and Odd followed.

**-Back to Jim, Cassidy, and Jeremie-**

"Jeremie, go get some peppermint leaves for us to rub ourselves with. I'll stay here to keep Jim Company and to write," she ordered.

Jeremie nodded. Seeing how Cassidy did an Uncle Fester so far today, she'd better stay where she was at.

He left the shelter.

"You know how to order like a captain, McGuire," Jim was impressed.

She shrugged. "It just comes to me at times."

**-With Aelita and Ulrich-**

Aelita met up with Ulrich in the Scanner Room. As soon as they took their scanners, she said, "Okay, I started up a delayed virtualization program."

"Where's the activated tower?"

"In the Forest Sector." The doors closed and they were sent to the right location.

"Wow, valet parking, that's classy." Ulrich hopped on his OverBike and Aelita followed.

"Come on, Ulrich. Rev it up!" she smiled at him.

The two went off to find the tower.

**-With Jeremie, Jim, and Cassidy-**

Jeremie returned with a big bushel of leaves. "Okay, Jim, take some mint and rub it on yourself."

Cassidy took her share and rubbed it on herself.

"It should be enough to hide our scent."

Jim did as told.

"It's a nauseating odor…"

"Better than rubbing ourselves with caribou doody, that's for sure," Cassidy kept rubbing herself.

"Oh, I don't know."

**-Back to Odd and Yumi-**

Odd and Yumi got on their vehicles.

"I feel a lot better on this machine than on Jim's ropes," Odd commented as they took off.

**-Back to Jim, Cassidy, and Jeremie-**

"Okay, now all we can do is wait," Jeremie said as soon as they used up all the leaves.

Cassidy's stomach growled loudly in hunger.

"Cassidy! That loud noise will cause the boar to find us," Jim reprimanded.

"I didn't mean to. Tengo hambre," she squeaked in protest.

"Oh…" Jeremie realized. Now that she had stopped barking at the ants, her hunger ripped back online. "And let's hope that the others…"

"Manage to either find help or disinfect the cheese?" Cassidy guessed.

"Hey are you two delirious or what?" Jim asked.

"Just um…daydreaming, Jim."

"Why don't you tell us about when you were in Canada," Jeremie picked the subject.

"Ah, well that is a long story," Jim recounted.

**-Back to Aelita and Ulrich-**

Ulrich drove along the path with Aelita as his passenger to an open area of land and stopped. "But where'd the tower go?" he asked.

Aelita looked. "I don't get it. It must be a calibration error. Without Jeremie or Cassidy to guide us, this won't be easy." A Krabe clunked up behind them. "Ulrich! Watch out!"

They drove around to avoid both the trees and the laser.

Unsheathing one of his four katanas, Ulrich blocked one of the Krabe's lasers when a second Krabe hit the playing field.

As the OverBike hit a bit of ground like a ramp, Aelita called out, "Energy field," and hit the beast dead center.

It exploded just as the two hit the path once again and braked.

"Well anyway, with all these troops around, the tower can't be that far." Ulrich looked into the horizon.

**-Back to Yumi and Odd-**

Yumi and Odd made it to the chamber room. As soon as she was off her OverWing, Yumi tripped the Key mechanism that materialized the stairs.

Odd was the first to jump on the stairs and keep going. Yumi followed. When they reached the top, they looked up.

The Mantas were still firing on the shield layers with William commanding the helm. **"Attack!"**

Two Mantas swooped down to attack the two Lyoko Warriors.

The two hopped the stairs.

Two lasers nearly hit Odd, but he jumped back and dodged a third. "Whoa. Beware of falling objects!" he muttered.

Just as he was about to catch up, Yumi deflected the lasers using her fans.

Odd caught up and looked. "Hey, isn't that Cassidy's boyfriend up there?" He pointed a pinky claw up in William's general direction.

The aforementioned guy looked at the now-cat warrior.

Yumi tossed her fans down. "He's not her boyfriend anymore!"

The fans missed the two Mantas, at first, but one hit them on the rebound.

She gathered them. "He's a little too clingy for her now anyhow!"

**-Back to Cassidy, Jim, and Jeremie-**

"And that is when I found out that as far back as a century I was a full-blooded Indian," Jim said.

Jeremie heard a noise and shushed Jim and stopped Cassidy from typing another character.

The boar sniffed around but then went away.

Jeremie sighed in stiff relief.

"It looked like your little trick worked," Jim complimented.

"Yeah, the mint smells strong enough now to trick him, but how much longer will it last?"

"I give it a few minutes," Cassidy whispered. "That's all I can promise, Jeremie."

**-With Ulrich and Aelita-**

Ulrich and Aelita drove for a few miles trying to find the activated tower.

"Still nothing," Ulrich said.

"Alright, we have to go back to where we started. The tower has to be there."

"Okay, here we go." He turned around on his OverBike and sped back to where they came from.

A laser connected to Ulrich's side and he was thrown off the vehicle.

Aelita desperately tried to hold on but the vehicle capsized, throwing Aelita off, and hurtled directly into a tree.

It seemed that the Krabe found another friend.

The "buddy" advanced on Aelita. "Energy field!" She called and threw her field.

The Krabe merely dodged the sphere and kept advancing.

Meanwhile, Ulrich woke up, shaking off the force of the impact, and saw Aelita trying to hold her own in front of the enemy.

He had to get up. So he did so, drew his katanas, but was blindsided by a laser from the first Krabe. He devirtualized.

**-Back to Jeremie, Cassidy, and Jim-**

The boar's head came through the shelter.

"He found us. What do we do now?" Jim asked the two.

"Yeah, Jeremie?" Cassidy turned to her friend.

Jeremie looked up at the bags, still attached to her arm.

"Cassidy, I really hope you can forgive me after this," he squeezed on the sedation bag hard.

She slowly started to flutter to sleep again.

Then he started screaming like a madman and ran out of the shelter. "Hey, what are you waiting for? I'm over here!" He kept yelling like his pants were on fire. "Hey! Follow me!"

The boar turned around and followed.

Jim scooted out of the cave to see what was going on. He then looked to the sleeping girl with Jeremie's laptop on her lap. _She'll be okay in here._

Then he went back to watch the action. "That kid doesn't have much muscle, but he sure is big on guts!"

**-Back to Odd and Yumi-**

The Mantas fired upon Odd and Yumi, but they fought back.

She tried a fan on one of them, but the Manta dodged and it barely nicked the Core.

"The first shield layer is about to give," Yumi said. "We have to do something."

Odd shot a few arrows, but kept on missing. "I know, and I got an idea!"

"Oh, yeah? What's that?" she couldn't help but wonder.

"Skydiving!" Odd hollered and jumped over the edge, digging his claws into the Manta's rubber-like membrane.

William saw, then thrust his sword again. **"Attack!"**

The Manta he wasn't riding on looked down at it as if in question, and so did his Manta.

Odd smiled as he successfully tamed the wild one. "Go get 'em, guys!"

Wild laser fire took hold. Then, William's Manta shot at Odd's and he got off before it exploded.

"YEAH!"

As he jumped on the next step, he looked back to see Yumi catching up.

Then he snapped back to attention. "Shield!"

His shield didn't last long as the Manta shot at and devirtualized him.

Yumi drew her fans and threw them at the Manta, killing it on impact.

William wasn't thrilled, but hopped off his monster as the fan killed it as well.

Now it was just Yumi and the opposition.

**-Back to Jeremie and the boar-**

Jeremie ran, jumped up, climbed a tree, and looked down. The boar had followed his every step. He started to shimmy down the ropes when the boar rammed the tree, almost knocking him off balance.

"Oh, no! I better get it right this time," he muttered.

The boar rammed the tree again.

**-Back to Aelita-**

Aelita dodged two lasers and threw an energy field at the Krabe. It missed but she tried again. The third time worked very greatly.

She ran from the other one.

_"Aelita, how are you doing?"_ Ulrich asked.

"Ulrich, tell me where the tower is! Hurry!" she kept running.

**-Back to Ulrich-**

"You should be next to it according to this!" He wasn't too confident on what the screen showed.

**-Back to Aelita-**

"That's impossible! I can't see it. How come?" She kept running.

The Krabe charged up its laser and fired.

Aelita jumped to dodge then fired an energy field. It dodged. The field kept going and hit the tower. "Got it!" She smiled in victory. "The tower was invisible, but I got it!"

**-Back to Jeremie and the boar-**

Jeremie kept a hold on the lines and was almost to the other side when the boar rammed the tree again, this time knocking Jeremie's feet off the lower line.

The pig went underneath him.

**-Back to Yumi-**

William charged at Yumi, who ducked. His zabanto was caught in the next step.

Yumi kicked him in the face, finally, payback for her friend.

He panted but got up, mind dragging his big sword back to him. She was wise to jump off and unsheathe her fans.

She threw one of them, but he slashed at them, deflecting their path. **"That was a volley shot. It's all over for you."**

She threw again, but he jumped and dodged it.

Yumi got down on her back and kicked him into the path of her fan, getting rid of William easily.

"And I would call that wishful thinking, Ex-y," Yumi caught her fan again.

**-Back to the boar-**

The boar walked around, waiting for Jeremie to drop off. He hung on tight. "I promise never to eat pork again!"

He was about to slip off when a stone connected to the pig's snout.

"Okay, then, you piece of overgrown bacon. You thought I was going to let you off that easy?"

Jeremie dropped off behind the pig and ran a little ways away behind a tree. "I'm sorry, Jim. But you should never have left the cave."

"Let me tell you, kid, you've got guts. But if you think I'd abandon my men under fire, you don't know good-ole Jim!"

**-Back to Aelita-**

Aelita charged up an energy field and fired at it, giving her enough time to run into the invisible tower and rise up to the second platform.

**-Back to the boar-**

The boar ran after Jim. "Come and get me if you dare!"

It struck him again.

**-Back to Aelita-**

Her feet gently landed on the second platform.

**-Back to Jeremie-**

The boar charged at Jeremie.

**-Back to Aelita-**

She pressed a hand on the interface.

Aelita's name scrolled on the screen. Then the word Code popped up on screen.

**-Back to Jeremie-**

Jeremie braced himself for impact.

**-Back to Aelita-**

Lyoko.

"Tower deactivated."

**-Back to Jeremie-**

The boar stopped, sat confused, and then took off in a different direction, much to the relief of Jeremie.

**-Later on, the next day-**

Jim walked around on campus using a cane.

The gang watched. When he looked to them he waved at them with the cane hand, and then walked over to them.

"Hey, you didn't do a return to the past. You sure Jim has forgotten everything?"

"Actually, Jim remembers. He just thinks that the pig had gone wild and tried to attack us," Cassidy took the answer for Jeremie, fully recovered from the day before.

Everyone sighed in relief as Jim came within earshot.

"Well hello, there, Jim. It's glad to see you back on two feet again," Aelita smiled.

"More like three, huh? But it's not too serious. Just a bad sprain and a nasty bruise." Jim smiled. "I'll be as good as new in two weeks' time."

"For us it's really a shame. Just one day's boot camp for two weeks of recovery."

"Oh, don't worry. That one day was very enlightening for me. You may not have been up for the commando level but you showed Great Spirit. You really did. As soon as I'm back in shape, I'll give you lots of other training sessions. And I hope to see you all there."

"Um…" Aelita said.

"Uh…not me. I'm booked to the end of the year. I got—uh—a sleep session," Odd came up for himself.

"Honestly, Jim, it's too much of a—" Yumi started.

"A horror—uh, it's too much of an honor," Ulrich finished.

"Well, I'll go. I didn't get to do much in camp," Cassidy smiled.

"And I'll be there, too," Jeremie surprised the lot. "I owe you one, Jim."

"Excellent, Belpois and McGuire. I knew I could count on you two kids."

He gave a wave, then hobbled off.

"I must be dreaming." Odd put his hands on his hips while sitting down. "'Well, I'll go' 'And I'll be there, too'? Well, you two could've come up with a better answer than that. Like no, for instance, or never, or nein, or nyet!"

"You two must really like Jim's torture," Ulrich deadpanned.

"Let me tell you something, kid, you've got guts!" Jim's words echoed around Jeremie's mind.

While in Cassidy's mind, they were, "McGuire. You have very good writing skills."


	52. We all need to take a Hot Shower!

**Whew…I might need a shower after this—a hot one at least.**

**I don't own Code Lyoko. I only own Cassidy. My bf LyokoWarrior1994 helped in the production.**

**-In outer space-**

A rhino-shaped rock looked to be floating aimlessly in orbit.  
**-At the factory-**

Jeremie was typing on something. "Okay, then. I'm uploading the program over to you. Now the Skid's sonar should be able to differentiate bio-signals from the rest of the computer code in the digital sea."

**-With Aelita, Odd, Ulrich, and Cassidy-**

"Okay, Jeremie, program received and activated," Aelita said from inside the cockpit.

Odd smiled. "And you think that with this we'll be able to find where XANA's keeping the spiritual essence of William prisoner."

Cassidy frowned at the mention. After the boar attack, William's flirting attempts got much stronger. She once avoided Lyoko for a whole week to try to regain herself.

"Let's hope so. It's the only chance we have with bringing him into the real world." Aelita was in the cockpit.

"Ah, the return of our tall, handsome hero. I'm sure Cassidy here would love to have him back," Odd smirked.

Cassidy looked to Ulrich, a look of begging in her eyes.

Then Odd threw in another blow. "I'm sure Ulrich's going to be thrilled to have his old rival back."

"Odd, sometimes we think you're really a bit too much," Ulrich took over.

"Only sometimes? Oh, no, I must be slipping!" Odd teased.

Cassidy shifted her eyes back, heart slipping into the deepest ranges of her stomach. "And I would like to know why William me dio un beso in Sector 5."

"You're still on that?" Ulrich asked her. "Why?"

"It's a question in my heart left for the buzzards—unanswered if you will," Cassidy nose-sighed. "I just don't know the answer."

**-Back at the lab-**

"Speaking of Yumi, I wouldn't mind being in her shoes today," Jeremie smiled.

"Are you kidding," Ulrich asked. "Helping around the outdoor science lab with sixth graders isn't her idea of fun."

"Aw, come on, I'm sure she's loving it."

**-Wrong, Jeremie-**

"To mark the exceptional event of Comet VG724's passage near Earth, we're going to create a giant mock-up of our solar system to plot its path to better understand its periodic extra-solar orbit. Beside me, the scale model of the sun, as you can see," Mrs. Hertz said through the megaphone on the track. "What you're going to do now is to create eight planets which will orbit around it. So we're going to break off into different teams, with one team responsible for one planet and its orbit."

Johnny looked to Yumi. "Ah, Yumi, I'd really like to be on your team."

She smiled. "Sorry, Johnny. It's not up to me. It's up to Mrs. Hertz."

"Are there any questions?" Mrs. Hertz asked.

Johnny waved his hands back and forth in the air like a lunatic. "Could I be on Yumi's team, huh, ma'am?" There was scattered laughter amongst the other graders, making Yumi uncomfortable.

"Okay, Johnny, but don't let me catch you clowning around with Hiroki," the teacher reminded. She didn't do much to change her outfit, but she did add a necklace.

Johnny was very excited. "This is going to be a lot of fun, huh?"

Yumi gave a very unconvincing thumbs-up.

**-With Jeremie-**

Jeremie watched the news.

The reporter gave this: _"The mass and velocity of the comet known as VG724 are so great, that striking the earth would provoke an explosion to the equivalent of one thousand times the strength of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. Subsequent earthquakes and tsunamis would destroy the world's major cities. Atmospheric debris would block out the sun in a long night lasting two centuries. Consequently this will spell mass extinction for flora and fauna and the entire human race. Of course, there is no risk of this happening, since the comet will pass no closer than um…well, two million kilometers from our planet. We also have been informed from highly confidential sources that our government operates a secret military satellite armed with laser cannons sufficiently powerful to be able to alter the path of any interstellar threats such as this."_

**-With the Skidbladnir-**

Aelita checked the enhanced radar. "The detection spectrum is honing in. The sonar is picking up a trace of digital DNA in the area. It might be William, or even maybe…" she trailed off.

"Your father? Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go check it out," Ulrich said.

Aelita took hold of the thrusters and pulled them toward her. "Okay."

**-With Yumi-**

Jim rolled in with the supplies. Mrs. Hertz handed out the envelopes containing each team's planet. He handed out what they needed.

Johnny opened his envelope and his eyes widened. "Oh, too cool! Hey Yumi, guess what. We get to do planet Earth!"

Yumi nodded with an air of boredom. "Yeah, great, this is my lucky day."

Hiroki looked to Johnny with their supplies. "Earth _and_ the moon."

"Yippee, and to think Jeremie wanted to take my place," she sounded unconvinced. _Today will be a boring one,_ she thought. _Unless Cassidy's visions have something to say, I think today will be about as fun as tractor pulling._

Mrs. Hertz came back to the scale model of the sun. "Now don't forget, the sun here should be the center of your calculated orbits, right? And sixth graders, make sure you know your planetary scale in relation to the sun. May I remind all of you that this exercise will be graded. Now get to work."

Jim walked onto the field. "Just a second, Suzanne. I have a very important safety announcement." He took the megaphone from her and said, "Now about the pole. I'd like to call your attention to an important textual aspect that they have two ends. One is pointy and sharp, that's the end you put into the ground. You try doing it the other way, you might hurt yourself pushing on the pointy end."

Sophie rushed across Jim's way and grabbed the poll. "Come on, you'd have to be an idiot not to figure that out."

Jim showed a sheepish look as his bandaged hand was facing Mrs. Hertz. She rolled her eyes. Sophie is right. Only an idiot could do that sort of damage.

**-In the Desert Sector-**

A tower turned red.

**-With Jeremie-**

Jeremie looked as the super-scan showed. "Ugh, why now? Why can't we go on an exploratory mission in peace for once?" Blaming XANA, he rubbed his head. "Well, XANA, what do you have in store for us this time?"

**-Meanwhile, in outer space-**

The military satellite's laser fired at Comet VG724 and it broke off into seven pieces. Now they were hurtling toward Earth.

**-Back to the Skidbladnir-**

Aelita was getting closer to their target when she heard Jeremie say, _"Sorry, Aelita, you're needed back on Lyoko on the double. Activated tower."_

"Got it Jeremie. I'm turning around." She tapped on the mini-keyboard and turned the Skidbladnir around.

**-Back to Yumi, Hiroki, and Johnny-**

Yumi was walking with her notepad and then saw Hiroki spinning something red and yellow. "Okay, I'm done. What do you think of my planet Earth?"

Johnny had a clay sphere with a smile on his head. "Look Yumi the moon is yours for the asking." Johnny chuckled a little.

Yumi smiled with a scoff. "Yeah right. Hiroki, doesn't the Earth have another name?"

Hiroki was still spinning the red ovular sphere and said, "The blue planet yeah I know." He raised his other hand up and made the red sphere spin faster. "I was using a little imagination, like if there was a Mars attack."

"And you Johnny? Do you really think anything can grow on the moon?" Yumi turned to him.

"Well no, but I figured it would be more poetic with plants."

"Both of you start over and fix it!" Yumi demanded.

The projects fell off their creators' finger/head.

Johnny looked at Yumi surprised. Hiroki patted his buddy's shoulder. "Forget it! Imagination and poetry are wasted on her."

"Please! It'll take a miracle to get me out of this," Yumi looked to the sky before burying her face with her notebook. Just then, as if by luck for the Japanese Lyoko Warrior, her phone rang. "Hello? Yes Jeremie?" She looked up. "An activated tower? Wow! Thank you, XANA." She smiled.

**-At the Lab-**

"Huh? What are you talking about?" asked Jeremie a bit flabbergasted.

**-With Yumi-**

"Oh nothing, on my way right now." Yumi hung up. She raced to the factory.

**-Back at the lab-**

_"Some breaking news. It appears that the comet VG724 has broken apart," _ the news lady said.

"What is going on around here?" Jeremie asked as a window of data popped up.

_"Um…for reasons yet unknown—correction: Um… International observatories have now confirmed that all is well with the comet, and it will simply crash on—"_ She messed with her notes—"_uh…nowhere! As you know it will pass very far from Earth. And anyway we can always obliterate it with military satellites."_ She put a finger to a communications device in her ear. It took a second._ "Which of course don't exist, this is just a little April fool joke from our producer. So that's it! Farewell—I mean more news later." _The news lady laughed uneasily.

"Uno, it's not April. Dos, something is going haywire." Jeremie started typing on the keyboard "Let's see. Orbital observation program. Comet VG724." A program popped up. It was a KIWI Search Engine that Odd constantly begged Jeremie to make. To pacify him, Jeremie did, on the condition that anyone could search on it.

**-Back in the Digital Sea-**

The others were making their way toward Lyoko.

_"__Aelita I just figured out XANA's attack. XANA used a satellite to change the course of a comet. It's gonna create a meteor shower, that will pour down on Earth."_ Jeremie said.

**-Back at the Lab-**

_"What?" _Aelita asked. _"Are you sure?"_

_"XANA, YOU ARE SO MUERTO WHEN JEREMIE MAKES THAT DEMISE PROGRAM!"_ Jeremie flinched and almost dropped the communicator in his ear when Cassidy yelled.

"Well actually according to my calculations most of the meteorite should burst up completely in the atmosphere. On the other hand, there's a huge chunk behind it that will crash directly into—oh, no! Into the factory!"

**-Back with the Skid-**

"Jeremie you have to get out of the factory right now." Aelita said.

_"_Jeremie please listen to Aelita and get out." Cassidy gripped the torpedo firer and squeezed on it as if it was a tiny tube-like lifeboat.

**-With Jeremie-**

"I can't do that! If the computer gets destroyed you guys will be stuck in the digital sea at XANA's mercy." Jeremie tapped his fingers on the armrest. "No! We have to deactivate the tower."

**-Back with the Skid-**

"Relax Jeremie, we'll do it in no time." Odd said.

"Yeah but that's not gonna stop the meteorite from falling." Ulrich was trying to calm Cassidy down to the best of his ability.

**-Back with Jeremie-**

"That's true and that's why I am staying here at the control center—to launch a return to the past before we're hit by it." Jeremie couldn't bear to leave his friends. If he left, he would put his friends' and sweetheart's lives at risk. He would not forgive himself whatsoever if that happened.

**-Back with the Skid-**

"Okay." Aelita said then boosted the speed of the skid. "Full speed ahead."

"_You got a hub bearing northwest position under the data bank shelf." _

"Got it." Aelita pulled on the main thruster and went under one of the network's interconnected databases. After they had gone a few knots, she spotted something on her radar. "Hub dead ahead."

**-With Yumi-**

Yumi was running in the woods, when her cell phone started to ring. "Jeremie? Yeah, I'm almost there." she stopped and asked, "What?"

**-With Jeremie-**

"Yeah, a meteorite and considering its mass it will not only obliterate not only the factory but also the entire area, including the academy," he warned. "The others are on their way back, they'll meet you on Lyoko." He didn't hear a response. "Yumi are you there?" asked Jeremie.

**-With Yumi-**

She looked back at the school. "Hiroki!" She whispered. It would be her fault if she didn't do something fast. "Sorry Jeremie I'll be right there but I uh…got something important to do." she said.

**-With Jeremie-**

"Yumi this isn't the time. We need you immediately! Yumi?" asked Jeremie.

**-With Yumi-**

Yumi had turned off her cell phone, and started running back to Kadic.

**-With Jeremie-**

"Yumi!" he exclaimed.

_"Relax, Jeremie, something in my visions tells me that Yumi went back to Kadic. Hiroki and Johnny are there not to mention all of the other student and teachers." _Cassidy said. _"She won't come here this Lyoko trip, but next time she will."_

**-With the group-**

The digital sea started to turn red. Just then, they went into a circular trap. The lights in the Skid went out. The passengers were looking a bit terrified.

"Holy cow, what is that?" Odd asked.

There was an alarm. "A fire wall, that's got to be a program from XANA." Aelita said as she touched the keypad. "I'll get us of out it."  
After a few seconds, she pressed a white button and tried to move forward. The Skid was flung back into the trap. "It's not working. Jeremie we got a problem."

**-With Jeremie-**

"I see it Aelita. I'm already on it." Jeremie started typing.

**-With Yumi-**

Yumi was now running back to Mrs. Hertz's class, and she got to Hiroki and Johnny. Hiroki held up the newly painted Earth model. It was purple with red now. "Hey, where'd you go? Look, I painted over it with blue. Now look at this awful color."

Yumi placed a hand on Hiroki's shoulder and said, "Hiroki, I want you to go home right now. Okay? Take Johnny with you. I'll meet you there later."

"What? What about Mrs. Hertz's class?" asked Hiroki.

"Hiroki! You heard me." Yumi pointed to an exit.

"What's the matter with you? Did you get into a fight with Ulrich or Cassidy?" asked Hiroki.

She growled and raced off to the teachers.

"By the way Suzanne how is it going with Pedro?" asked Jim.

"Oh please really Jim? Not around the students." Mrs. Hertz looked about ready to blush.

"Mrs. Hertz, we have to evacuate the academy," Yumi said.

"What are you talking about, Yumi?" asked Mrs. Hertz.

"Well, it's—uh—I know this may sound crazy but a meteorite is going to hit right here where we are standing."

"Hold on now Ishiyama. I told you eating that raw fish is no good for you." Jim looked at her with a look that obviously said, "You can't fool me twice."

"No I swear it's true. I just found out from—a friend who works at the national observatory," Yumi lied.

Just then the meteors had entered the atmosphere, and began pouring down. Students were amazed, even Jim. "Wow, great fireworks." Jim said through the megaphone.

Mrs. Hertz wasn't so convinced however. "Jim, we have to evacuate the academy."

"Huh?"

**-Back with the group-**

The Skid, still pulled in the fire wall, was struggling. Aelita had pressed some keys, and she said, "The firewall's energy is set up along a fairly basic algorithm. All we have to do is crack it, and we'll slip through a breach in security."

**-With Jeremie-**

Jeremie was typing some keys. "Good idea. Hey, I think I finally understand was XANA is up to."

"_Bravo, Einstein you finally realized that he wants to destroy the supercomputer to keep us from coming in and pulling the virtual carpet from under him?" _Odd asked.

_"Odd,"_ Cassidy almost scolded.

"Well obviously." He pressed a key. "But this time he picked the most perfect moment."

**-In the Skid-**

"Of course. By destroying the supercomputer, XANA will not only destroy Lyoko, but more importantly our only way back into the real world." Aelita said.

"Jeepers, XANA sure has got us good this time." Cassidy shook her head. "I don't think even my recent not-so-sporadic-now pesadillas can keep up with this."

"But why would he want to trap us here?" asked Aelita.

**-With Jeremie-**

"To get a hold of you and Cassidy, Aelita. You two are the ones XANA has wanted to catch since we recreated Lyoko. It's called killing two birds with one stone," Jeremie explained.

**-Back with Yumi-**

"Come now Suzanne this is ridiculous! are you absolutely sure it couldn't have been from something else? Fireworks for example?" Mr. Delmas asked.

Mrs. Hertz shook her head.

"That's what I keep telling her, but I think she overdid it with the mint tea," Jim said.

Mrs. Hertz pushed her glassed toward her nose. "I know what I saw Jean-Pierre, it was a meteor shower. We have to get the students to safety now."

Mr. Delmas looked over to the students, and then back to Mrs. Hertz. "Fine, as a precaution I am willing to go ahead and evacuate the academy but I don't want any panic."

Yumi smiled and gave the two teachers two thumbs-up.

**-Meanwhile in Space-**

The meteors were still flying toward the Earth, and the one that is supposed to destroy the factory was being shown.

**-Back in the digital sea-**

"Got it. I found a weak link to the algorithm. It's as plain as day. The system overcompensates pressure. But it takes three milliseconds to reverse its polarity."

**-Back in the Lab-**

"Of course, by synchronizing the initial pressure you can neutralize the sinusoidal distortion, Aelita."

_"Translation?"_ asked Odd.

-**Back in the Skid-**

"Rubber band system, hang on." Aelita pressed some buttons. She then pulled a handle, and the vehicle backed up into the back of the firewall. "Stand by for slapping the turbo prob. Ready? And NOW!" She slammed her fist down on a button.

The firewall released as the Skid rocketed through the digital sea. The passengers tried to hold on tight.

**-Back in the Lab-**

"Nice one, Aelita. Now get over to the hub. We need you back on Lyoko ASAP." Jeremie said.

**-Back in the Skid-**

Aelita pulled herself together, and took the handle. "Roger." She started up the Skid and they smoothed over to the hub. The sea now turned blue.

"Everyone okay?" Aelita asked.

"My breakfast wants to come back up and say hello. But otherwise, all is well." Odd gripped his stomach.

"My stomach is like that too." Cassidy grabbed hers. "Ugh, Rosa will hate me for losing a waffle in a virtual world."

**-Back in the Lab-**

"They're never gonna get there in time. Unless I-" Jeremie snapped his fingers. "Yeah, if only I can manage and regain control of that satellite even for a minute, I just might get the meteorite to change its course again." He reached for the keyboard, and clicked a button. "Let's see, defense department. Top secret data…password…" He typed in some words. "Piece of cake."

**-Back at the School-**

The students unaware of the situation, Johnny and Hiroki were reworking on the projects. However, Jim turned on the megaphone. "Okay, fire drill, everybody. I want all of you to make your way calmly to the main gate."

"Not again." a student moaned.

"Another drill." another student moaned.

**-Back in the digital sea-**

"Hub in sight, 30 seconds to dive." Aelita said.

**-Back in the lab-**

"Bingo! Well, now I'm just gonna need a transition relay to link up to the satellite." Jeremie said, and then adjusted his communicator. He started dialing for Yumi on the supercomputer.

**-Back at the School-**

Yumi had her arms crossed with one another as Hiroki and Johnny passed by her. She then put them in her pocket, and began walking until her phone rang. "Jeremie?" She picked it up. "Yes, I'm still at school! I'm really sorry but I had to—"

-**Back at the Lab-**

"Don't worry, Yumi, Plan B time. In fact, I'm glad you haven't left school, yet." Jeremie smiled.

**-Back at Kadic-**

"Your laptop? Okay, I'll go to your room and get it. Then what?" Yumi asked as she passed by the Science building. "Um, okay." She pressed the off button. She started to run to Jeremie's room.

Johnny noticed this and looked to Hiroki. "Hey, where's your sister going?"

"Only one way to find out." Hiroki said, and the two began to walk away from the other students and in Yumi's direction.

**-Back in the Digital sea-**

The Skid closed in on the Hub.

**-Back in the Lab-**

Jeremie was typing some keys and asked, "Do you read me Aelita?"

**-Back in the digital sea-**

_"I'm entering the coordinates for Lyoko._"

"Stand by for broadband acceleration in three, two, one, zero." The Skid dived into the Hub.

**-Meanwhile in Outer Space-**

The meteorites were still pouring down into the Earth. The bigger one was getting closer.

**-Back at school-**

Jim had seen the meteorites falling, and said, "Take cover." and went to ground. Students were murmuring, and Jim got up and laughed until he realized that his megaphone was broken.

"It's a meteor," a student said, then more students said it.

"Calm down, calm down, right now!" Jim shouted.

**-With Yumi-**

Yumi opened the door to Jeremie's room, and grabbed the laptop. She than picked up her phone and said, "Jeremie, we're good. I just picked up your laptop."

**-Back in the Lab-**

"Head to the roof of the Science building and hook it to the antenna."

**-Back with Yumi-**

"I'm on it." Yumi began running to the Science building.

**-Back in the Lab-**

"And hurry up." Jeremie said.

**-Back with Yumi-**

Yumi ran out of the boys' dorm, but what she didn't know was that Johnny and Hiroki was behind her. The latter opened the door, and began chasing after her along with the former.

**-Back with the group-**

The group rose up out of the digital sea, and was in Desert Sector. Aelita had pulled the Skid up, and they got to the high grounds.  
"Okay Jeremie, we're back on Lyoko. Where's the activated tower?" Aelita asked.

_"Desert Sector quadrant 57, 42." _ Jeremie informed.

"Roger." Aelita pulled the steering thruster and boosted the Skid's engine just long enough to be above the grounds of Lyoko. By that time, she spotted the tower.

"There it is." Aelita said.

**-With Yumi-**

Yumi rushed into the Science building, and ran up the steps that led to the top of it. Not too far behind were Hiroki and Johnny. They followed her. Yumi then got to the door that led to the roof. She tried to open it, but the opening wouldn't open. Yumi kicked on it once, groaned an "Oh, no!", and continued on hitting and kicking the door out of frustration.

"That Security Door vs. Yumi's Ankle. I bet on the door." Hiroki said.

Yumi turned around some of her hair over her face, "What do you two think you're doing here?"

**-Back on Lyoko-**

The Skid was just a couple feet away from the activated tower. "Here we go." Aelita said then typed some of the keys, and then said  
"Teleport."

Ulrich, and Cassidy were teleported out of the skid. Just then, a Kankrelat had showed up.

"The tower is only 50 meters away." Ulrich said.

"How much time do we have Jeremie?" asked Cassidy.

_"Enough, if you can get rid of your welcoming committee." _ Jeremie said.

The Kankrelat was about to fire, but then ran behind the tower. "He ran away, so why waste a laser arrow on a coward? Go on buddy he's all yours." Odd looked at Ulrich. Cassidy laughed.

"¡Ah, él es un cobarde!" she squealed.

Odd started racing followed by Ulrich, then Cassidy and Aelita. They then stopped. "Jeepers, this doesn't look good." Cassidy said.

"Yeah, I agree." Odd said.

Two Tarantulas showed up, and Ulrich took out two of his four katanas. Cassidy had gotten out one of her tubes. _Turn yourself into a bow and a quiver of arrows_, she had thought. The tube had done just that, and one more Tarantula then showed up. Finally, William had showed up. He materialized his zabanto. He had shaken his head, and then put the sword into the ground in a way said, "Ye shall not pass" again.

"All of a sudden that tower seems a lot further away." Odd said.

Cassidy's stomach couldn't help but agree, as she started to feel butterflies in it. She gulped. "I—uh…"

Aelita rubbed her arm. "Don't worry, we'll be fine."

"But still. WHY in the ALMIGHTY UNIVERSE did I DATE that XANAFIED MINION?" she yelled in panic.

**"The XANAFIED MINION has a name, you know,"** William catcalled from across the way.

**-****Back with Yumi-**

"Maybe you should just tell us what you think you are doing." Hiroki and Johnny advanced the stairs up to Yumi.

"I haven't got time for you brats, go back outside," Yumi said as she tried to get the door open but failed.

Johnny had his arms crossed but with a smile. Hiroki said, "We know how to open it."

"Shut up Hiroki, I'm sick of your lies," she shouted.

"But it's true, we can open any door."

Johnny nodded his agreement.

"Well if you think you are so good then, be my guests." She picked up the laptop.

"Okay, but first you got to tell us what you're up to." Hiroki said.

"Ugh, what have I got to lose? A meteorite is going to crash on the school. If I don't connect this computer to the roof antenna now, then Jeremie won't be able to access a satellite that might change its course. Understand?" Yumi held up the laptop.

"A meteorite? Not bad, tell us what is really going on." Hiroki said.

**-Meanwhile outside-**

A meteor hit the ground, causing a tremor in the earth.

**-Back Inside-**

Yumi, Hiroki, and Johnny were forced onto the ground. The former got up and the first latter looked to the second latter. "Okay, okay. Let's go Johnny." The two crawled to the door. Hiroki got up and started picking the lock. He turned one of his tools around and then the other.

"Incredible." Yumi said astonished. _Not to self, bring my diary with me from now on. Hiding it sure isn't going to make a difference anymore._

In time, everyone heard a click when Hiroki had pulled the handle.

**-Back on Lyoko-**

Aelita was hiding behind some rocks that were being fired at by the Tarantulas. Ulrich said, "Super Sprint!" He tried to super speed over to one Tarantula to attack him, but another one shot him in the stomach, sending him flying back. Odd flinched when he saw that.  
William stood there amused and his arms folded. The Tarantulas started firing and Odd said, "Laser arrow!" But he missed. Cassidy tried using one of her own arrows, but missed as well. Ulrich rushed back.

"Hot." Ulrich said.

"Yeah, well this is the desert." Odd said.

"How far did you fly, Ulrich?" There was a glint of humor in Cassidy's eyes.

_"He flew seventy yards."_

"This doesn't look good. We'll never get through," Aelita looked at her friends.

"Yeah, I have to agree with you there Aelita." Cassidy said.

"You should never say never." Odd said.

"Reminds me of the old trailer I saw when I was a girl. American Tail: Fievel Goes West," Cassidy smiled.

**-Back with Yumi-**

Yumi was now on the roof of the science building along with Hiroki and Johnny.

"Okay, Jeremie, I am on the roof. Now what do I do?" Yumi asked.

-**Back in the Lab- **

Jeremie typed on some keys, and said, "Listen try to find the antenna cable."

**-Back with Yumi-**

Yumi saw the antenna cable, and jumped for it, landing safely back on her feet. "Got it!"

**-Back in the Lab-**

"Great now cut it as cleanly as you can and stick it to the blue plug that is in the back of my laptop. Push it as hard as you can. We can't strip the wire. There's not enough time."

**-Back with Yumi-**

_"It should work." _

"Great! What am I supposed to without a knife?" asked Yumi.

Johnny took out his Swiss Army Knife. It unveiled so many tools, including scissors, a file, and a corkscrew.

"Huh?" wondered Yumi.

**-Back on Lyoko-**

The Tarantulas were still firing at the Ulrich and the others. Aelita had come out from behind a rock and fired an energy field at a Tarantula which combusted.

"Nice one, Princess." Odd said.

"Muy bien, Aelita." Cassidy said.

Just then the same Kankrelat staggered behind them and tried to fire at them, Odd readied his laser arrows. "A coward and a cheater?" Ulrich used his super speed and took out the Kankrelat. "Hey!" He took offense.

"We got to change tactics!" the samurai said.

William removed his sword, and started running toward them.

**-Back in the Lab-**

"_Okay, Jeremie, it's in."_ Yumi said.

"Great job," Jeremie was about to start typing on the keys. "Now, let the duel begin."

**-Back with Yumi, Hiroki, and Johnny-**

Wind was brewing up, and the satellite sparked in purple electricity. Yumi, Hiroki, and Johnny turned around toward the city.

**-Meanwhile in outer space-**

The electricity had gotten to the satellite.

**-Back in the Lab-**

A window had popped up, and red data was shown. "How did that rat XANA get on to me? How is it going over there Ulrich?" Jeremie looked at the screen.

**-Back on Lyoko-**

"Not so good Jeremie," Ulrich looked at the scene.

The others were being pushed toward the edge by William and his Tarantulas.

"Stay behind us, Aelita and Cassidy. We can't afford to lose the both of you," Ulrich said. "And without you, Aelita, we will never be able to deactivate the tower!"

The Tarantulas were firing at them, and Ulrich blocked them with his katanas.

"How can anyone be such a bad shot?" Odd jumped over them but the Tarantula shot him in the chest. He was now on the ground.  
"Odd!" both Cassidy and Aelita said as they went over to him.

The Tarantula looked at them, but then started firing at Ulrich again.

"The Tarantulas haven't even fired at us once." Aelita said.

"Nor has William started flirting with me…yet. We still have one hundred life points," Cassidy gulped before the word yet.  
William then showed up.

"Oh, me and my big mouth!"

"Well that's because you got a couple of great bodyguards," Odd smiled.

**-Meanwhile outside-**

The meteorite that was supposed to hit the school was now close to doing so.

**-Back in the Lab-**

Jeremie had stopped typing some keys, as he saw his screen. "Too late." and then continued on typing again.

**-With Yumi, Hiroki, and Johnny-**

Yumi had looked up, seeing the meteorites falling. She pointed. "Get going you two, hurry up!"

"But what about you?" Hiroki said.

The sky was now very cloudy, and the wind had increased.

"I can't let go of the cable, beat it." Yumi kept holding the computer.

**-Back in the Lab-**

"I'll never make it. XANA is a flawless program and I'm only human." Jeremie said while typing on some more keys.

**-Back on Lyoko-**

Ulrich was blocking the lasers, Aelita, Odd, and Cassidy behind him.

"This time, it's all over." Ulrich said.

"No Ulrich." Aelita said as she activated her wings.

She got in front of Odd and Ulrich.

"What are you doing?" Ulrich asked.

"I'm forcing XANA to make a choice," Aelita said. William growled angrily at this and pointed his zabanto at her.

Cassidy felt something strange cross over her. She rubbed her head as if she had a headache. _What's going on?_

Odd looked back at her. "You okay, Cassidy?"

"I—I don't know, Odd. It feels like something or someone's taking over." She almost fell to her knees. "I don't know who it is, but I know—I know it ain't XANA."

Ulrich stopped defending and caught his friend. "If it's not XANA, who is it?"

"I have no idea, Ulrich."

"Hurry, Odd!" Aelita's voice turned Odd to attention. "Devirtualize me."

"Odd, don't question it, just do so," Cassidy gritted her teeth.

_"Odd, Cassidy and Aelita are right, it's our only hope."_

Just as Odd let loose a laser arrow, the sensation took Cassidy by storm.

_Cassidy, I'm not dead, but I'm here to help._

_Who are you?_ She asked in her mind.

_Just trust me. I can't give you any hints right now. Activate your wings and shoot your arrows at the Tarantulas and your XANA-possessed friend. This'll work._

Cassidy ran her hand across her heart-shaped pendant and flew off.

Odd looked at her appalled. "She's going to get herself killed!" He ran off to her. "CASSIDY!"

"Odd, stay behind!" Cassidy growled. "I know what I'm doing!" She aimed an arrow at one of the Tarantulas. Keeping her distance from the ensuing lasers, her eyes glowed brown as she gave out a big yell. "YEAH!"

_Don't get over-confident. We have the tower._

She let one of her arrows release, but missed. _Um…can I change into a gun?_

The mysterious voice in her head chuckled._ Of course. You're very good at guns anyway._

She changed her bow and arrows into a gun and started an onslaught of bullets. The Tarantulas didn't know what hit them when they combusted. She spotted her ex, standing as though stupefied, and catcalled, "Catch me if you can, Lady Killer."

Okay, that did it. William growled heatedly as he dissolved into smoke in the ground and followed her. She dipped and soared, keeping in mind that her ex was on the chase.

Ulrich stood as though hit from behind with a cattle prod. "Did you see that?" he yelled at Odd.

"Yeah, I sure did," he nodded.

She swooped under a rock outcropping and started to make her way through the Desert Sector to the activated tower.

_Swing upside-down and shoot. Your friend is right behind you. I'll deactivate the wings for that time, and it'll be up to you. I'm not going to leave you for now._

Sure enough, her wings disappeared and she flipped, the glow dissipating for the few minutes.

"She's going to land headfirst, Ulrich. We need to do something," Odd yelled.

Ulrich went into a lunge position. "Super—huh?"

Cassidy aimed her gun down and shot William in the chest. "You gave my love a bad name. I'm satisfied that Lady Luck, para tí, never smiles."

She bent her knees as the acceleration of her own gravity started to pick up. The wings activated again and she was carried aloft.

**-Back in the Scanner Room-**

Aelita came out of the scanner. She clutched one side of her stomach and grimaced. _Maybe I should've asked Ulrich to do it._

She made her way slowly to the elevator.

**-With Yumi, Hiroki, and Johnny-**

Hiroki slid down next to his sister. Johnny followed shortly afterward. Yumi wrapped her arms around the two of them. This was it. It was all over.

**-Back at Lyoko-**

"Look at Cassidy go," Odd cheered as Cassidy landed next to the tower.

She walked inside the tower. Ulrich's brows rose above his headband and his jaw dropped. Odd blinked with wide eyes. She wouldn't be able to deactivate the tower, would she?

**-With Aelita and Jeremie-**

Aelita walked out of the elevator, feeling the phantom pain vanish, and went over to Jeremie. "To win, sometimes you gotta know how to lose."

"Um…Aelita, I think you need to see this," Jeremie looked at the screen as if he had seen a ghost.

**-With Cassidy-**

She rose to the second platform. _What am I doing? Isn't Aelita supposed to take care of this?_

_Yes, but she's off Lyoko now. Let me take over now,_ the voice seemed caring and smooth.

She closed her eyes and allowed the mysterious force to take over. Once under the control, she placed a gentle hand to the interface that popped up.

**-With Yumi-**

The sky seemed to clear, but then darken as the wind picked up and the meteor started to hurtle toward them.

Holding onto the little boys for dear life, Yumi closed her eyes, waiting for the impact. A tear came out of one of her eyes. This was it.

**-Back to Cassidy-**

Cassidy's name scrolled across the screen. It beeped twice at her. Then a new name scrolled across the screen:

FRANZ

Inside, her mind was alive with the electricity of shock. _Franz?**!** I'm being controlled by FRANZ?**!** HOLY—_

_That better not end with a curse, dear._

_HOLY COW OF THE WILD!_

CODE:

**-With Yumi and the boys-**

She held a fervent prayer.

**-With Cassidy-**

LYOKO

As fast as lightning, the sensation left her. She looked around confused. "Huh? Where am I? What happened?" She looked up at the interface where it said Code: Lyoko.

"How in the name of Lou did I do that?"

**-At the lab-**

Aelita's jaw dropped. She was right. How in the name of Lou did she do that?

Jeremie looked at the screen as if it might as well explode. She couldn't have possibly done that. She didn't even share one shred of Aelita's DNA.

**-With the Satellite-**

The satellite shot its laser at the meteor and it crumbled into tiny pieces.

**-With the factory-**

Four pieces of meteorite rained into the river around the factory. Ashes started to snow to the ground.

**-With Yumi, Hiroki, and Johnny-**

"Hey, what's—? Wow!" Hiroki said.

"We're saved!" the two boys exclaimed as they gotten up.

Yumi grabbed her cell phone. "Great shot Jeremie, real bull's eye."

_"That…wasn't me,"_ Jeremie sounded a bit shocked. _"I don't really know how to explain it. Maybe later."_

**-With the Boys on Lyoko-**

Ulrich and Odd looked at the tower as if it would become a monster in ten seconds.

**-Back in the Lab-**

Jeremie looked to the screen. He wanted an answer.

_"Um…Jeremie, I think a return to the past will do the trick, good buddy,"_ Odd sounded like he was joking, but he could tell his friend didn't know if, like he, the now-cat-warrior was dreaming or what.

He started to type on the keys.

**-With Yumi-**

The ashes all gone, Hiroki asked, "Well Yumi? Don't the brats get a thank you?"

Yumi had bent down, and put both of her hands on her shoulders. "Thank you, brats." She kissed her brother on the cheek.

"Yuck!" Hiroki started wiping it off. Yumi kissed Johnny on the cheek after him and the boy gave two thumbs up with a smile.

"You guys really helped me a lot this time."

"Yeah, I'm not gonna let you forget that, either," Hiroki sounded like he was threatening his sister.

"Oh, give me a little break, huh?" He cocked an eyebrow, and Yumi clapped her hands once.

**-Back in the Lab-**

Jeremie had entered the button for the Return trip.

"Return to the past now."

The area was engulfed in a white bubble...

**-Back in Jeremie's room-**

Yumi had opened the door, and her friends were waiting for her.

"So how was your day?" asked Jeremie.

"You won't believe it, but we got the highest grade. And so I promised Johnny I would keep his moon as a present. I owe him at least that, even if he doesn't remember anything," Yumi said, holding a button of the moon.

"See your brother's not that bad after all." Aelita said.

"So what happened on Lyoko?" Yumi wanted to know.

Cassidy hid behind Jeremie's bed. "Um…"

Ulrich sighed and explained what happened to the moment she entered the tower. "She was under the control of somebody other than XANA."

"I think I found out who it was. The details are fuzzier than my not-so-sporadic recent nightmares at this point, but…" Cassidy trailed off.

"Yes?" Yumi used tried to find her.

"Aelita, I don't know how, and I'm not related, I think, but it was your father," Cassidy closed her eyes.

Aelita's jaw dropped once again.

She came out and walked over to the closed door. In instance she slammed into it.

"Let's get a scan in before you go take a shower," Jeremie advised.

**-After the scan-**

Cassidy came out of the scanner a bit dizzy. "Anything, Einstein?"

_"No relation to Franz Hopper or Aelita, but I see a sort of barrier in the location where your sub-consciousness lies."_

"In English, Jeremie," she whined.

_"You have a dream barrier that is blocking anything that may be your dreams. I still don't understand the blackout visions, but as soon as possible, I'll try to find the solution."_

"Thank you," she sighed. "I still don't understand how I managed to deactivate the tower."

_"I don't understand either,"_ Aelita sounded in the Scanner Room.

"Another mystery made in Lyoko, I guess," Cassidy shrugged.


	53. It came from Lyoko Lake!

**At least the Lake ain't haunted.**

**I don't own Code Lyoko. I only own Cassidy.**

**-With the younger Lyoko Warriors about to go on the bus-**

"You can take your hand luggage on the bus with you, and the rest of your stuff goes down here," Jim ordered as he took the luggage to the compartment on the bus.

Mrs. Hertz took role call. In the spirit of renaissance, everyone reverted to his or her former attire. Jim had his red tracksuit. Jeremie had his baby-sky blue turtleneck and brown pants. Aelita had her pink jumper and maroon-looking overalls. Odd regained his pants and switched out his hoodie with the long-sleeve shirt he wore. Ulrich wore his earth tones.

Speaking of Jeremie, he turned to Aelita. "What if XANA attacks while we're away?"

She smiled. "After a week of working day and night on the program, I think we deserve this weekend, don't you?" She tickled Jeremie's chin, who he then turned a shade of pink. "It'll be our first time we're going camping together, too."

Ulrich turned to them, cocking a brow. "What program are you talking about, huh?"

With Odd taking the lead, Jeremie said, "Aelita thought we should shore up the protection shields on the Skid. We haven't tested it, though."

Odd looked behind himself. "You two, plus Cassidy, are incredible, really. I mean, as if we hadn't have enough homework for school already." He had handed his blue and purple bag in to Jim.

"What about Kiwi?" Aelita asked, cocking a brow.

"Cassidy convinced him that it would be too much torment to bring Kiwi. She's taking care of him while staying at Kadic. She will do research on one of the Hawaiian Islands to make up points," Jeremie explained.

"How come she's staying again?" Ulrich asked.

"There were a lot of reasons, and heaven knows how much sense she can make," Odd looked to his roommate, sighing as Jim and Mrs. Hertz reprimanded Sissi for so many bags.

As soon as everyone was settled in his or her seats, Jeremie set his bag down and put his seatbelt on. Aelita strapped herself in, as did Odd and Ulrich. Odd took out four cookie boxes and passed three to Ulrich. "Here, good buddy. The other two are for Einstein and Princess."

He smiled and helped pass the other two boxes to Jeremie and Aelita. "Thanks, Odd."

"Don't thank me. Thank Cassidy. She wanted me to share," Odd smiled.

"Speaking of the ones that got away, Yumi got stuck with a test this weekend while Cassidy stays with her," Ulrich picked up his cell phone.

**-With Yumi and Cassidy-**

"Not one. I've got _two_ tests today. You lucky dogs! I wish I were on that bus with you," Yumi smiled.

"Um…I wouldn't wish that if I were you, Yumi," Cassidy said uneasily. "I think XANA would be in joy if _all_ of us were there."

In addition to the nightmare that was always the same, Cassidy was also plagued with the thought—no—the _fear_ of William's evil flirting. She tried to build defenses against it, but he was smarter.

**-With the four-**

"I'd love to sneak you girls on," Ulrich smiled, and then whispered as an add-on, "Mostly you, Yumi."

**-With Yumi and Cassidy-**

"Well, the torture session's about to start. Speak to you later," Yumi said. "Thanks, Ulrich. Love you." She placed her phone in her pocket.

Cassidy then had a spark-flash. "Oh, Yumi…! You should know that one of the test answers is the factor of minus X. I think it'll work."

"Okay," Yumi nodded. She creased a brow. Usually, Cassidy would flip at the sound of hearing her say she loved Ulrich, or if Aelita would say that to Jeremie, or vice versa on either variable. Today, she didn't react the way she would've. "Are you okay, Cassidy?"

"Tired of having nightmares that are always the same and having William flirting with me," Cassidy sighed. "It's exhausting and frightening at the same time."

"He makes your defenses look like worms."

"Defenses?! Yumi, I'm _trying_ to defend myself. I stayed up all night once with my laptop trying to think of a schematic to avoid him. I guess XANA saw it and ruined it! I'm wondering when he will let up. With XANA, William's _screwing everything up!_" Cassidy vented. "It's _no help_ with my nightmares! I swore off everything I could. I wish I am in front of a steering wheel _right this instant_ so my head can _honk the horn_!"

Yumi didn't know what to say. They walked in, Cassidy suddenly breathing as though it was easy now.

**-With the younger members-**

Hervé was sleeping, dreaming about the day that Sissi would go out with him. Sissi, next to him, however, checked herself in a compact mirror and then flipped the mirror so slightly so Ulrich was in the mirror.

"Elisabeth! Put that strap higher up!" Jim reprimanded. "Seatbelts weren't meant for puppy dogs."

Odd gave a convincing woof and laughed.

Jim looked at him. "Well, well, someone thought it would be funny to bark."

"Yeah, but hey, it was funny. I don't have a dog on the bus," Odd smiled.

"That's good, Della Robbia. But the dog thing was a little much."

"Sorry, Jim. It won't happen again," Odd promised.

"Okay, I'll let you go this once with a warning. You got it, Odd," Jim asked.

"Sir, yes, sir!"

**-With Yumi and Cassidy-**

Mrs. Meyer handed out the tests. "Quiet, please! For this exam, all you need is a sharpened pencil and your logic and concentration."

Yumi looked to Clone William. "You're lucky. As a computer program, this math test should be a real piece of cake."

"What's a math test and a piece of cake?"

Cassidy tried all she could to keep from laughing. The math test required silence and although she was a guest, there was a high chance of her getting kicked out of class. Luckily, she was able to compose herself.

Yumi, however, was taken aback. Jeremie was right. The clone was a sore thumb. The girl sitting in a chair near the teacher's desk would say he was unintelligent.

**-With the others-**

The bus stopped at the location. Jim walked out and then told the other students to disembark. Everyone looked at the island. Mrs. Hertz spread her arms apart. "Here we are. This will be our home and our laboratory for the weekend. An unspoiled haven for all lovers of flora. A field trip to a true Garden of Eden. In short, an ecosystem unequaled in their region. And you are looking right at it."

In the middle of her spiel, the other students looked to each other confused. Sissi was the first to say, "What?! That microscopic island is where we're going to camp?!"

"If you think that's small, wait until you see the rubber dinghies."

Later on, they were paddling to the isle. Odd and Ulrich took turns paddling while Jeremie typed away on his laptop. "I was afraid of this. I can't get a signal here. I won't be able to access the supercomputer."

Aelita clicked on her phone. "Don't worry. In the meantime, I can still call out. I'll tell Yumi and Cassidy."

**-Back with Yumi and Cassidy-**

Yumi looked in her math book after she took her math test. "Wow, you were right. The factor of minus X was the right answer. You definitely saved my grades, Cassidy."

"It was nothing, Yumi. Aelita's going to call," Cassidy blinked, a spark-flash hitting her instantaneously.

Sure enough, Yumi's phone rang. She picked it up. "Not in inferno here, everything okay in Paradise?"

**-With Aelita-**

"Not really. Jeremie can't seem to get online. You two are going to have to check regularly to see what's happening on Lyoko," Aelita informed.

**-With Yumi and Cassidy-**

"You've gotta be kidding me. I've got a huge French test in five minutes and—Hello? Hello?!"

"Don't worry, Yumi. The isle they're at has no signal. That's the reason why. We can get to the factory," Cassidy sat beside Yumi.

Yumi shook her phone a little, as if she didn't hear what her friend had said.

**-With Aelita-**

"That's it. I've been cut off, but I think she got my meaning," Aelita reported.

Jeremie looked at her. "Are you sure?"

They kept paddling to the island after that.

**-With Yumi and Cassidy-**

"Hurry up, Yumi, Cassidy," a girl told them.

"Be right there," Yumi assured. "We've gotta—um—go to the bathroom." They raced off, Cassidy smiling. Sweet freedom was great on Lyoko, Cassidy never questioned it.

**-With the others-**

The others were standing in a clearing when Jim said, "Remember to pitch your tents very carefully, because if you don't, the smallest gust of wind and—Poof! Down it'll come. Actually that reminds me of when I was living in a teepee in the desert near New Mexico…"

Mrs. Hertz cut in. "Jim…this might not be the right time."

"You don't know what you're missing, Suzanne." He tapped a tent post to his chin. "Anyway, I want you all to read the instructions for the setting up of your tents before you start if you don't want to find yourselves up the creek without a paddle." He chuckled. "Now get going."

Everyone grabbed a bundle of tent supplies. Ulrich unzipped his tent and looked behind him to Odd. "Do you know to set this up?"

"Yeah, sure no, problem." Odd kept walking. "Follow the instructions and just holler if you need any help."

"But—" Ulrich stammered. He couldn't believe that Odd left him hanging. "Thanks a lot."

A chilling voice over his shoulder made him look to the side. "Ulrich, honey, I thought that maybe we could pitch our tents side-by-side so we can talk to each other tonight."

He didn't need to look. "Sorry, Sissi, but I didn't go camping just to gossip or talk about clothes." He took his tent bundle and walked off, leaving her with an open mouth. "I'd rather sleep."

Hervé came in. "Hey, Sissi, well—I would be really glad to set up my tent next to yours for tonight."

"Sure, Hervé," the tone Sissi used was icy with just a perfect hint of sarcasm.

The acne-faced boy smiled. "Really? Oh, that's fabulous! Fantastic! I, uh—uh… By the way, where's your tent?"

She dropped the bundle at his feet. "Right there. Let me know when you set it up." Sissi walked away.

Jeremie typed at his computer. "There's nothing we can do. Without a connection, it's totally useless. Let's hope XANA doesn't take advantage of it."

Aelita pounded in the last tent post and looked to Jeremie with a smile. "Relax, Jeremie. Yumi and Cassidy are watching the store at home."

**-At the Factory-**

The door to the lab opened up and Cassidy and Yumi came out. A gray flash of fur nearly tackled the former girl to the ground. She giggled. "I'm glad to see you, Kiwi."

_Nice to see you again._

"Thanks. But there isn't much time. Yumi has a test in a few minutes," Cassidy nodded.

Yumi's mouth slammed to the floor. "You can read Kiwi's mind?"

"Yes, it happened on the first day back to Kadic's classes, it scared me at first, but now I've grown used to it."

"I guess I was not paying any attention when we had to defend the Core of Lyoko for the first time," Yumi shook her head.

"Hey, it's okay. It happens." Suddenly, she closed her eyes as a sharp snap of pain hit her head. "AGH!"

"You okay, Cassidy?"

_Cassidy?_ Kiwi tilted his head to the side.

She opened her eyes. It was as if snow was making the brown irises and black pupils go white. "Yumi, Aelita's going to get attacked by the Schyphozoa one last time someday." Suddenly, the ground started to tremble. Just then, Cassidy blinked and winced in pain. "Ow!"

_Had to do it, Cassidy,_ Kiwi whimpered a little.

The shaking had stopped. "Thank you, Kiwi," Yumi sighed. Then she raced over to the chair and sat down in it. "Okay, let's see." She tapped on a key and the computer turned on. A dark blue loading bar popped up and filled in light blue.

**-With Mrs. Hertz's class-**

Mrs. Hertz gave a lecture about a flower. Soon, she asked a question, "So, in your opinion, what would happen if the lake dried up?"

Nicholas had his answer. "Uh…we would be able to walk home?"

The science teacher sighed. Sometimes Nicholas was really dense.

**-In the Ice Sector-**

A tower turned into a blood-red color.

**-In an unknown area of Lyoko-**

A tower pulsated bright red.

**-Back at the Lab-**

All of a sudden, an unimaginable pain hit Cassidy hard. She shrieked so loud that Yumi stopped looking at the screen and Kiwi jolted awake.

"Cassidy?! What's wrong? Where does it hurt?"

"My—back!" Cassidy collapsed on the lab floor. "On the—rock scar!"

Yumi carefully removed Cassidy's pink shirt and looked at the scar. It seemed to spark as if it had been wired with electricity in such a short time. She warily touched it, though Cassidy whimpered as tears rolled down her cheeks.

Yumi flinched back. Even the lightest of touches on that general area would intensify the pain. She could only watch.

"Hang in there, Cassidy, please!" Yumi pleaded. She couldn't afford to lose her friend and Savior.

**-Back to Location Unknown-**

The tower stopped pulsing.

**-Lab-**

Pain lifted, Cassidy was reduced to a panting and tearful girl.

"Are you okay?" Yumi asked, worried.

"I—I think so," Cassidy screwed up her eyes in an attempt to recover.

Yumi carefully pressed a finger to her friend's scar again. Cassidy didn't flinch, nor did she whimper. It was as if she was without pain, now.

"Strange," she murmured quietly.

"May I have my shirt back, please? I'm starting to feel cold," the other girl seemed to feel full of energy again, despite the fact that a few seconds ago, she was in a world of pain.

Soon things seemed to calm down again. Yumi slid back to her position in front of the screen.

**-To the electrical lines-**

Sparks flew from the electrical lines, down the telephone pole in a spiral. It hit the ground and jumped over the rubber dinghy rack into the water. A few seconds later, a black mass took form.

**-With Yumi and Cassidy-**

"Well, everything seems okay—No open window, no activated tower—I may even get higher than an F on my French test," Yumi muttered.

"Don't speak too soon," Cassidy blinked again. This time her eyes were a slightly lighter shade.

Just as she spoke, the Supercomputer started to beep. Yumi looked back at it just when she was about to move. A window popped up to show one **activated tower.**

"No. Ah…I guess that's that," Yumi whipped out her phone.

"The signal's still cut between us and the others," Cassidy's eye color turned back to her regular brown.

"Are they on a desert island or what?"

**-Back to the gang-**

Mrs. Hertz kept going on about the flower and then pointed the group she was teaching elsewhere else. "…of a rare species of butterfly, as we will soon see here in the woods."

Everyone walked off. Nicholas was still on about something. "I didn't see what was so funny. I mean, what's the use of a boat if there isn't any more water?"

The black form came closer. Nicholas and Heidi looked. "Hey, there's a lot of pollution in this lake," he said dumbly as she gasped. He took a stick and poked at the black oily substance. Electricity sprang from it and hit him.

That scene made Heidi scream. "Help! Hurry up! Come quickly, Jim! Mrs. _Hertz_!" She turned and raced off.

**-In Sector 5-**

The Schyphozoa made its way up the Celestial Dome and into the North Pole. There it lowered into the room.

**-Back to the Lake-**

Mrs. Hertz took Nicholas's pulse. "He's in a state of shock, but he's breathing."

"There was this thing in the lake. It was black. It shot a lightning bolt at Nicholas, and it was gone," Heidi explained quickly.

"It must've been an electric eel. I've seen them before," Jim remembered. "When I was a forest ranger in Quebec…"

In the middle of Jim's speech, Ulrich and Jeremie looked to each other in worry. Could this be a XANA attack?

"Jim, enough chatter. Make yourself useful and go get the first aid kit," Mrs. Hertz ordered.

"Right away, Suzanne." Jim ran off.

Heidi was still in shock. "It wasn't an eel. It was much bigger. It was huge!"

It was there that Jeremie decided to speak up. "Ma'am, I—I really think that we're in great danger here."

The elderly science teacher smiled in reassurance. "Now, now, don't worry, Jeremie. These things happen. Everything's going to be just fine."

Suddenly, the black blob in the lake returned, shooting lightning at the shore. Everyone panicked, even those back in the clearing where it was safe.

Theo and another girl said simultaneously, "What's going on, Jim? We're scared!"

Jim popped out of his tent with a case in his hand. "Stay where you are. Let me go check it out" He raced back to the shore. "Ah. An ambulance." He froze at the sight.

Ulrich was holding an unconscious Sissi behind a tree. Jeremie was trying to take Heidi's pulse. Mrs. Hertz was draped over Nicholas. And Hervé was lying on the ground, alone and unconscious.

"Huh? Suzanne?" Jim dropped the first-aid kit. "Whoa…what is happening here…"

**-With the Schyphozoa-**

The Schyphozoa glided to and placed its tentacles onto the Skidbladnir. Red energy went up into its bruised and scarred membrane.

**-With Yumi and Cassidy-**

Yumi and Cassidy looked at the screen. "This is just what I was dreaming about one day." After gaining a strange look from the geisha, the cat-girl defended calmly, "Before I had the nightmares, of course."

"XANA's attacking the Skid!" Yumi tried to type on the Supercomputer. "I don't know what to do." She rang up Jeremie's number. "Jeremie, answer, please!"

"Still no service until either A, a connection is possible…"

"And B?"

"…or B, Aelita finds a way to make an antenna using tent posts."

**-Back to the gang-**

Ulrich, Jeremie, Aelita, and Odd congregated around a spot to talk in private. "We absolutely have to find a way to get back to the factory."

"One step off the island means electrocution for sure," Ulrich told his leader.

"If we could create a diversion, maybe one of us could get away," Odd suggested.

"Okay, you and Ulrich do that. I'll retry to get in touch with Yumi and Cassidy. If only we had an antenna," Jeremie whispered.

Aelita looked over at the tents. "Okay, how big an antenna?"

**-With Jim-**

Children were screaming and pleading Jim to let them leave. Paul had his arms around Jim's middle. "Calm down now. I don't know what that thing in the lake is, but I can tell you that it'd better watch it, because he's going to have to deal with me, and sparks will start flying… That is, well, there already are sparks." He put his arms around the frightened children. "Well, you know what I mean. Now, to begin with…" he knelt beside Mrs. Hertz, "…we've got to help Mrs. Hertz."

He started shaking her gently. "Suzanne. Suzanne! Say something, Suzanne." When he had no response, he set her down, reeled his hand back, and several students cringed as his hand went across her face.

**-On Lyoko-**

A familiar figure appeared in the Ice Sector. His face was showing a stone look of anger. Three Krabes took to surrounding him in triangular formation.

**-Back with Yumi and Cassidy-**

Another window popped up revealing four dots. "Oh, no! That's all we need."

"Don't say it!" Cassidy shivered. "Don't even think it!" She knew it was him. She hated him.

"Okay, for you, I won't say it," Yumi had to concede. She knew the mere mention of William's name would make her friend panic.

Suddenly, Jeremie's face popped up in front of the view window. "Jeremie. About time."

**-With Jeremie and Aelita-**

"Hey, listen. We're here playing survivor with an aquatic monster that likes to electrocute anybody who comes too close to the shore. Anything on your side?" Jeremie asked, standing close to the makeshift antenna that Aelita made.

**-With Yumi and Cassidy-**

"We're totally helpless. The activated tower is really well-protected, and the Skid is in the process of losing its energy," Yumi informed.

"Not to mention Mr. Hated just came up," Cassidy shivered.

_"Does the Skid have many life points left?"_ Jeremie asked.

"At the rate things are going with the ship, it's going to be over in no time." The two girls watched the screen.

**-With Jeremie and Aelita-**

Jeremie covered the mouth piece with his hand and looked to his sweetheart. "Listen. There's no other choice. Ready or not, we have to test the program." He uncovered the piece. "Yumi, Cassidy, do any of you have anything to write with? I'll dictate what you two have to do."

**-With Yumi and Cassidy-**

Yumi rummaged through her bag. "I oughtta have a pen, since I've got a French test right now!" She pulled out a pen and a pad. "Go on, then, shoot."

**-With Jim-**

"That's the first time I slugged someone without getting a reaction." Jim looked at his hand.

"You have to give her mouth-to-mouth," a student suggested.

"Yeah, mouth-to-mouth! Of course." Jim leaned in when…

"Jim! You come even a hair closer, and it's the last thing you'll ever do on this earth! Understand?" Mrs. Hertz woke up and gave him a stern look.

He couldn't contain his pride. "Hey! I cured her!" All the surrounding awake students were smiling after that.

**-With Yumi and Cassidy-**

After a simple suggestion, Cassidy was typing at the Supercomputer. She admitted that she wasn't as fast as Aelita or Jeremie, but could try her best. "Now, shift the energy on the lateral shields on the side of the attack." Cassidy had to pause for a second to refer to her visions. _Near the front of the Skidbladnir._ "To the right?" she asked as she resumed typing. A window with a red exclamation point in a circle flashed in front of her. "Other right…" The psychic girl consulted the communicator in her ear. "Jeremie, what are these commands? I'm afraid that we need Aelita. No tenemos buena suerte."

**-Back to Aelita and Jeremie-**

"They'll never make it on their own, Aelita," Jeremie looked to her.

Ulrich and Odd rushed into the area. "Jeremie, we're all set, but we need Aelita," the former told the genius.

"Yumi, Cassidy, the others are trying to get to the factory. Until then, you two better get things prepared for going to Lyoko," Jeremie gave a nod to Aelita, who followed the two bodyguards.

**-Back to the two girls-**

"Okay," The two girls simultaneously said.

**-With the victims-**

Heidi, Hervé, Sissi, and Nicholas opened their eyes. "Feeling better?" Jim asked them. "Yeah, obviously. Well, you've all been through a nasty shock."

All of a sudden, a shrill voice made him turn his head. "JIM!"

"Alright, what's the matter, now?"

"Help me, Jim! It's the boats!" Odd raced in and got on his knees.

Jim gave him a look of "Mm-hm". He followed the student to the shore. "Only you can help me retrieve all the defenseless boats out there, Jim!"

"Okay, I heard you. Don't overdo it, now, Della Robbia."

"Look over there!" He pointed out almost all the dinghies in the water.

"Holy moly! How did the boats get into a mess like that?"

"I was searching for my cookie box in one of the canoes, and, well, a wind came up and blew them away. Oh, Jim, help me retrieve them!" Odd pleaded.

"Okay, but you stay right here, you understand," Jim went out on the dinghy left and started in his job.

Meanwhile, another stray dinghy appeared behind a willow tree. Ulrich was paddling the boat. He looked to Odd, who smiled. Jim was going one way and didn't pay attention to the now AWOL boat.

**-With Yumi and Cassidy-**

The girls stood in their scanners. "Are you sure you are ready for this, Cassidy?"

She blinked hard. "As I'll ever be."

"You don't have to come if you don't want to, right?"

"I know, but I want to save the world as usual. I've already saved your life thousands of times." She nodded to Yumi.

The scanners closed before Yumi could say anything else. Soon they were off to Lyoko in a flash. When they landed, there was no chance for them to talk. They got up and raced across the virtual snow.

**-With Jim-**

Jim paddled to the first boat. "Okay, here's the first one." He made a grab for it and carried it to the shore.

Then he steeled himself for the next boat, but then the boat was carried by a current. He looked over to where it was going and saw… "Why that's, that's that sneaky Ulrich Stern."

Ulrich kept paddling. He was halfway to shore.

"Come back immediately, will ya?! Stern, I'm responsible for—gah!" Jim asked, standing up and putting a foot in the other dinghy. It wasn't his best idea, for he fell into the water.

**-With Yumi and Cassidy-**

They stopped near the vicinity. Cassidy turned one tube into a gun and got her wings ready. "I'm ready to fight, Yumi." Though the marked absence of William was a relief, she still feared him. She tried to throw a cold, wet towel on the flames of fear in her mind. This was no time for cowardice.

"Three on two," Yumi had her own worries. With a metallic _shing_, her fans were flicked out.

"We've had worse chances before," Cassidy became airborne.

The monsters fired. Cassidy had to loop to avoid getting hit. "Okay, Yumi. We need to take out as many as we can, here. Just, be careful."

"Okay, just hold your own, too. Remember…"

"Don't say it!" Cassidy growled before zipping off. She knew what Yumi would say next. _"…that William is on the loose, too."_

"Is she on her time of month or what?" Yumi muttered quietly.

She soared to a Krabe. "Come little Krabby, I'll take thee away, into the land of Red Lobster… Come little Krabby, the time has come to be slain, here in my games of death…" she sang, laughing.

The other two Krabes kept shooting at Yumi. She cart-wheeled out of harms' way and threw her fans. They ducked and she caught her fans. "Tough guys…"

She jumped off the small embankment and raced to one of the Krabes.

Meanwhile, Cassidy kept shooting at her monster. It kept firing back. Suddenly she was clipped in the shoulder. Fearing the wings disappearing, she fired one last bullet before spiraling into the activated tower, unknowingly disintegrating her enemy. She landed on the platform. _Safe and sound. I may have lost forty life points, but I'm still kicking._

Meanwhile, Yumi jumped on one of the Krabes backs and withdrew her fan. The other Krabe fired. Her fan blocked the shot as she threw the other one. It sliced it on the eye symbol. It froze, paralyzed, and then combusted. The force of it threw her off. Luckily, she landed on her feet. The Krabe left charged up to fire. Yumi, with some luck on her side, cart-wheeled out of the way.

The monster started to follow her.

** -With Jim-**

A dinghy bumped into Jim. He managed to get on it as the water started to bubble.

Ulrich, conversely, noticed it and tried to paddle faster. He must get to the other side to complete their plan. It was the only way.

"STERN, Come back here!" Jim ordered.

The boat's journey to him was interrupted as the black mass started to come up again. Ulrich noticed with a screaming gasp. His strokes became more desperate. The black mass surrounded the dinghy. A lightning bolt jumped up from it and onto him, jolting him into unconsciousness. The boat made it to shore, though he was worse for wear.

The sludgy mass made its way to Jim, next. "Come here, you slime ball. You don't scare me. I've got rubber insole NASA-issued astronaut Space Shoes!" He raised his paddle when the lightning hit him. He flopped around a little before landing over the edge in the dinghy. "'Smarted just a little…"

**-With the Skidbladnir-**

The Schyphozoa was still stealing the vehicle's energy as it had been.

**-Back at Ulrich's dinghy-**

A figure emerged from the rubber blanket. It was Aelita. She was super lucky the electricity didn't affect her. Though her facial expression changed when she saw Ulrich, she then smiled when she saw Sissi's bike.

"Let's see how fast I can pedal," Aelita said to herself.

**-Back on Lyoko-**

Yumi kept cart-wheeling away from the Krabe's blast until she gained ample ground. The Krabe fired again when Yumi cart-wheeled again. She tossed her fan at it. It dodged and shot at her again just as Cassidy was about to emerge. This time it got lucky and hit her, she was thrown into Cassidy and the two were thrown into the activated tower again.

"Cassidy, are you okay?" Yumi asked.

"Still not used to getting a body thrown into me, but yes, I'm alright. We both have sixty life points."

Meanwhile, the fan flew in a slight arc into the Krabe's shell. It found its way into the tower, which Yumi caught. "There we go! The place needed a clean-up."

"Did the Krabe I battled with die?" Cassidy blinked.

"Yes."

"Good."

They were about to exit when Cassidy froze with a whimper. "Yumi?"

"Yes, Cassidy?"

"Is there two of us in the tower? Or is there three?"

"Do you sense someone else?"

She nodded. "I think Mr. Hated is right behind us." A virtual chill went down her spine.

Yumi was about to turn and look when… "Please don't look!"

William Dunbar was indeed there.

**-Back to the isle and the lake-**

The sludge made its way up to the island. Jeremie typed on his laptop when Odd walked up. "I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that Aelita got through."

"_My_ good news is that I finally managed to get connected to the Supercomputer." The genius smiled, as did the wildcard.

"The bad news is that our black, muddy sludge monster is on the prowl."

**-Back to Lyoko-**

Yumi and Cassidy were kicked out of the tower. Their stomachs were sparking with electricity. That was some kick.

Red ripples formed and the same stone-faced figure walked out. The XANA sign on both his chest and forehead were keen signs for Cassidy to be afraid. He formed his sword from a black smoke.

Yumi unsheathed her fan and threw it at him. He put up his sword to deflect. It hit only the metal of the zabanto. It was his turn. He charged at them and tried to slash/smash them.

Cassidy jumped up and, like Yumi, flipped backward. She blinked in surprise. How did she learn to do that? She wasn't this brave. She always was afraid to do gymnastics. Holding back was her specialty. Her body wanted to, but her heart held back. But this time it was as if her heart was numb to the moves. Was it her fear of William?

William then tried again, but this time, Yumi twirled and, using one of her fans as an extension of her arm, locked it with William's forehead. "You can never beat us, XANA, ya hear?" She flicked it open in front of his eyes.

William lifted his leg and kicked her in the stomach, and did the same to Cassidy. The two were sent sliding back a few feet. William tried to smash-slash at them again, but Yumi and Cassidy jumped back again. The former girl unsheathed her fan and threw it at him again. He deflected again.

The fan flew over in a slight spiral, in an arch, and cut across Yumi's hand. She shook it to relieve the pain. The girls looked up in time to see William jump up in the air again. The two wheeled to the right and avoided his sword. Cassidy again blinked in surprise. Never before had she shown this much dodge in her life.

William tried to smash/slice them again when they jumped to the left. Yumi got on her hands and jumped, giving him a well-timed kick to the back. He dropped his zabanto. Now it was their turn. Yumi launched her only fan left while Cassidy fired a bullet.

He dropped into the ground as black smoke and slithered under the two girls. He jumped back up. If William ever came too close to Cassidy, she would feel a shiver down her spine. This time, the shiver came with a shriek.

Yumi looked behind her, but felt a boot connect with her stomach. It sent her down to the ground. Soon she was joined by Cassidy, who was also in the same position.

Then William gathered his zabanto. This was it. He raced over to the girls, both of whom were rising, put a boot to their chests, and raised his sword.

Virtual hearts in sync with their panic, Yumi and Cassidy gasped and chorused, as if they had time to rehearse it for years, "NO, WILLIAM! YOU'RE A LYOKO WARRIOR! YOU _SWORE_ TO IT!"

William stopped in his tracks, eyes widening. Suddenly he flashed back.

**-William's flashback-**

_William was in front of the center scanner._

_"'You swear not to give away the secret?" Yumi asked._

_"Even at the cost of your life, William Dunbar?" Cassidy nodded in agreement._

_"I swear," William said formally._

"Good answer, William,"_ said Jeremie approvingly._

**-Back to the present-**

William dropped his zabanto with a clang. He grabbed at his hair, feeling pain in his head, and then he fell to his knees, away from Yumi and Cassidy.

The two girls looked on with shock, standing up slowly and backing away.

**-With Aelita-**

Sissi's bike in her control, Aelita started pedaling down the road. This was of grave importance. Internally, she was glad that she had retained the skills needed to propel the vehicle. Though it was nothing like the OverBike, she was glad nonetheless.

**-Back at the island-**

Everyone was panicking. Odd helped an unconscious-for-the-second-time Mrs. Hertz to walk. Lightning hit a tree and Odd had to jump. "Watch out!" He hollered to Sissi. Luckily all three were unharmed.

A girl was crying.

"Now if Aelita would just get there in time, we can launch the program," Jeremie muttered.

**-With Aelita-**

Aelita pedaled across the bridge and grabbed the rope to swing to the elevator.

**-With William-**

More flashbacks ensued. William closed his eyes, shaking.

**-William's flashback, part 2-**

_"Hey, you can still change your mind," Yumi told William._

_"Are you kidding?" He stepped into the Scanner and turned around. The doors closed._

**-Back with William-**

He couldn't take it as he spread his arms apart.

**-William's flashback, part 3-**

_The scanner opened to reveal the newest Lyoko Warrior. Odd was concerned. "Well tell us. How do you feel now?"_

_"Ready to take on XANA and his monsters!" William smiled._

**-Back with William-**

He screamed as he put his hands to his head.

Yumi was backing away further. She didn't know what was going on with William, but to her, it seemed dangerous.

Then Cassidy cried, "Please, William, remember. We used to go out with each other. Remember, please?!"

**-William's flashback, part 4-**

_William and Cassidy were walking home with ice cream cones in their hands, laughing. "That was a great joke, William."_

_"Could you tell me why you had to postpone the date until today?" he wondered calmly._

_"Oh, Aelita and I ended up in an accident at the pool. Nothing major. Never again will I have a headache that nearly drowns me," she tittered in love._

_"Ah," William nodded. "Bed rest, huh?"_

_"Doctor's orders."_

_He smiled. He had found the girl of his dreams at last._

**-Back to the island-**

Lightning hit the antenna. The current went down to the ground and hit Jeremie's computer, which made him scream a little when he realized something. "Why, of course." The answer was right in front of him. The smile he wore after that grew.

**-With Aelita-**

Aelita raced to the chair as soon as the elevator opened. "The program's almost complete." She read off a message from Jeremie. "'Is the Skid beyond hope?' No, not yet." Aelita began typing on the program.

**-With William-**

William started to feel something he hadn't felt in a long time, freedom, but at the same time, it was painful. Soon he opened his eyes.

Yumi and Cassidy gasped in surprise. The former girl walked closer and knelt beside him. "William." She received a grunt in response. "William, listen, it's me, Yumi."

The latter knelt beside him, too. "And me, Cassidy."

William was still in a battle. Yumi and Cassidy looked away when he lifted his head with a cough.

"Oh, William," Yumi gently took his hands and pulled him slowly to his feet.

"Cassidy?" William looked not to the person who helped him to his feet.

"William, you're back," Cassidy felt like rejoicing.

"Cassidy, no! You—you shouldn't be here! XANA…he wants to use you!"

"That doesn't matter, William."

"No! Get devirtualized! Go to Illinois!"

"I can't, William! YOU tore up my only chance home. My parents can't afford to get me back," Cassidy shook her head.

"Get out of here and go home."

"Alright! But before I do, William, why did you kiss me in Sector 5?" she asked.

William looked around the Ice Sector. "Because I—**GAH!**"

"WILLIAM!" Cassidy's eyes flashed in fearfulness.

"**Cassidy,** get out **of here**," William's voice was interchanging with voices that sounded of the Legion and his regular tone.

"William, answer me! Why did you kiss me? Do it quickly!" She really wanted the answer so much her tail was shaking.

**"RUN!"**

"No," she squeaked. She nearly had his answer. She was so dang close.

Suddenly he went silent. Yumi tried to touch him when he grabbed her hand, doing the same with Cassidy's, evil in his eyes. Yumi flinched. William kicked them again.

Cassidy knew that she would be in danger. She took her choice and raced away.

**"Super Smoke!"** she heard William say. Suddenly she slammed into him.

A shiver went down her spine again. He was going to flirt with her again, and no amount of trying to play his game was going to save her. Suddenly, a darkish red flash slammed into him, saving her by mere microns.

"Th-Thank you, Yumi," Cassidy looked to her, trying to recover.

William finally managed to gather his zabanto. He looked to Yumi with a look of malice.

**-With Aelita-**

A window with four towers popped up within Aelita's view. "Okay, it's launched!"

**-On all four surrounding sectors of Lyoko-**

A tower turned a dark emerald-like green in all four sectors.

**-With the Schyphozoa-**

With the sudden increase in power, the Schyphozoa was blasted apart.

**-Back to Aelita-**

Aelita stretched in the 'cushy chair'. "Well, we should feel proud of ourselves. Our program is operational." Then she directed her attention to the action in the Ice Sector, typing on the keys. "Yumi, Cassidy, how are we doing?"

**-With the two girls-**

"Aelita, at last!" Yumi rejoiced, flipping behind an ice floe. William found his way to her and almost hit her when she ducked out of the way. The ice cracked with his sword. She made it a few yards, then stopped, kicking up virtual snow.

Cassidy also kept time with Yumi. William was after her, too.

"We can't hold on much longer," Yumi informed. "And if I'm out of the picture, Mr. Hated might get the chance to use flirting as a weapon on Cassidy again."

The cat-girl whimpered at that chance.

Mr. Hated swung his zabanto at them. Yumi flipped backward while Cassidy hopped in the same direction. Their shoes met an edge. The latter mentioned girl looked at the Digital Sea, feeling chills down her spine. "He's going to throw us over, Aelita!"

_"Give me a moment to set up a delayed virtualization program, and I'm there,"_ Aelita tried to comfort.

**-With the others-**

Lightning was hitting on all sides. Other students were running in terror. Paul ran past Jeremie, who stood up to give an order. "Okay, everybody! Hurry it up! Run to the antenna over there! It'll be our lightning rod!"

Sissi emerged from behind a tent, as did Heidi. Hervé was ducked and covered halfway in the tent beside them. Nicholas and Magali popped their heads out on the other side.

**-Down in the Scanner room-**

The doors to Aelita's scanner closed. Soon she was virtualized into Lyoko.

**-Back on Lyoko-**

Yumi and Cassidy feared the worst. William raised his sword when a pink energy field hit him instead. It shot him into the drink.

"Just in time," Aelita said.

Cassidy and Yumi looked over the edge with the released feeling of sadness.

Aelita approached with caution. "Is something wrong, Yumi, Cassidy?"

Yumi sighed, but looked to her friend. "For a few seconds, there, the real William came back, Aelita."

Cassidy nodded as if mute. She was so close to finding an answer but now it was almost a lost call.

Aelita smiled in sympathy. "That means we'll bring him home someday."

**-Back to the isle-**

"The electrical discharges are getting more intense. Given the enormous rate of ionization, against the dispersion factor on the ground, they're going to reach a highly critical mass in—let's see, just about seven minutes," Jeremie calculated.

Odd looked to him as if he was crazy. This was no time for science. This was a matter of life or death—literally. "Meaning?"

"In seven minutes, everything on this whole island is going to turn into one big barbecue."  
Odd's eyes widened as he let out a shout of panic.

**-On Lyoko-**

With an energy field, Yumi Ishiyama disappeared off the face of Lyoko. Cassidy took the time to sit on the ground and try to meditate while the pink-haired girl ran into the tower.

**-In the scanner room-**

Yumi came out of the scanner clutching her side. Gathering her strength quickly, she raced for the elevator.

** -Back at the isle-**

Everyone was huddled under the antenna now. The lightning was getting worse and the sky was darkening.

**-With Aelita-**

Aelita raced for the tower and entered it. As soon as she stepped on the center dot, she began to levitate to the second platform, doing a small flip in between.

**-Back at the island-**

The lightning was getting stronger. Everyone was bracing for impact.

**-Back with Aelita-**

Aelita's name scrolled on the screen. Then the word Code popped up on screen.

LYOKO

"Tower deactivated."

**-Back to the isle-**

The sky and water cleared. There was peace throughout the land. Everyone looked up. Jeremie and Odd were the only ones that rose to their feet. "Hey, Benjamin Franklin, do you think Aelita will remember to program a return to the past?"

**-Let's see, Odd-**

_"Go on, Yumi,"_ Aelita ordered softly.

Yumi typed on the keys. "Return to the past, now!"

The white bubble covered all of Earth. With it was a chance to restart anew…

**-In the Bus-**

"So, I regenerated the shield by activating several towers for a few seconds at a time. That's what saved the Skid," Aelita explained.

Ulrich looked to her. "So, that's what you've been doing while we were gone? What a fun weekend," he finished dryly.

"Anyway, it's effective, isn't it?" Jeremie asked. "Obviously it requires too much energy to be able to use it all at a time."

Odd took his turn. "Hey, how come you are so cool all of a sudden, Einstein? XANA attacks don't scare you anymore?"

Jeremie looked to Aelita. "They're still scary, but since he never makes the same mistake a second time, and since Aelita, Cassidy, and I have been working non-stop for all of this week, we'd like a little, um…" he smiled as he looked to Ulrich and Odd.

Cassidy changed her mind earlier and packed to go camping. She smiled. "We'd like a small vacation, is all."

"That's it," Jeremie looked behind him.

"So why did you decide to stay the first time?" Ulrich asked her.

"For one thing, I thought I was too old to camp. Another thing was that I wanted to get an answer from Mr. Hated."

Ulrich put his hands up. "Okay, we get the picture."

"I never did get it, though. XANA regained control before he could say why." She looked out the window, having gained her double seat for her own, in forlorn. A black and red bag sat in the seat beside her.

Jeremie blushed.

"Is Kiwi staying at the factory?" Odd asked, hoping to change the subject for his friend and ex.

"Yes. I made sure he had plenty of food, newspapers, secretly duplicate copies of Milly and Tamiya's articles, his toys, and everything else," Cassidy kept looking out the window. "I made sure to tell Yumi to check the Supercomputer regularly since our signals will get shot."

Aelita tried to look behind her. "You might get your answer someday, Cassidy."

"I know, it's just disappointing, is all."

Ulrich came up with an idea. "Do you want to play 90 Second Alphabet? It always takes your mind off things."

"Sure," Cassidy looked to him.

And so…they played, gradually bringing in the whole bus with it. The Lyoko Warriors held their secret in when that happened, though Cassidy admitted, she was feeling better and better throughout the game.


	54. We were lost at sea! Calmate, por favor

**Well, I'm glad we are not lost. **

**I don't own Code Lyoko, and I think you know the rest.**

Odd and Ulrich walked under the arches up to the two members of their gang. Aelita shut the door to the dormitory entrance while Cassidy, who looked like she had been sweating cold buckets of ice the night before, stood at the ready. As soon as Aelita came out, they walked up to the boys. "Hey, Aelita. Einstein isn't with you or Cassidy?" Odd asked.

Aelita cut to the negative and looked at him. "We haven't seen him yet today."

"Plus, I'm so heavy lidded from all these nightmares I've been having that I'm just about to give up dreaming altogether," Cassidy blinked.

"Didn't Jeremie say you have some sort of dream barrier?" Ulrich asked her.

Cassidy sighed. "It is with a heavy heart, yes."

"Did you know that you are now sleepwalking, Cassidy?" Aelita creased a brow.

Her eyes widened. "What?"

"I saw you sleeping in front of your closet with your head against the door. That's not very good for your back. Everything okay?"

"I sure hope so. But during sleepwalking, nothing is dreamed. If what you're saying is true, I shouldn't be dreaming. I remember dreaming and only dreaming."

"Did you have episodes before?" Ulrich asked.

Cassidy shook her head. "No. Not even before I came to Kadic."

"Ah, well, Cat-Lover-Girl, you're still alive, aren't you?" Odd quipped.

She sighed. "As long as XANA or Mr. Hated don't kill me first."

The samurai looked off to the side. "Speak of the devil, look who's here!"

For a second, Cassidy's heart flopped. Did William come out of the scanners to attack her and Aelita again? Then she saw Jeremie amble run over to them, and she sighed in relief.

Jeremie stopped at the post to catch his breath, his arm obscuring something on his forehead. Then he looked to his team. "Hello, everybody."

"Let me guess, you fell asleep in front of your keyboard again," Odd smiled.

"And let's not go any further, okay, Odd?" Cassidy sighed, as if Odd got on her bad side, which was a rarity.

He winced. "Wh—what do you mean, Cassidy?"

"I have a birthmark on my forehead. So I don't see what the big deal is. Harry Potter has a scar on his forehead." She was shaking as if heavily ticked off at Odd.

Ulrich crossed his arms across his chest. "Uh-oh, okay, I think I know someone who needs to air out her neurons a bit."

"My neurons are fine!" Cassidy protested.

"You have been a bit cranky lately," Jeremie noted. "Yumi told me everything that happened before the return trip after we came back. You totally blew a gasket."

"I was venting my frustrations about Mr. Hated and my nightmares, Jeremie," Cassidy tried to be calm to Jeremie.

"Anyway, there's an imprint of your keyboard on your forehead," Odd smiled.

"And, let me guess, you are working on a program to bring Mr. Hated back," Cassidy gave him a bored look.

Jeremie smiled. "Yes, and a way to let you have dreams here while we work on a way to eliminate the dream barrier."

Her eyes widened. "I thought it would be impossible to dissolve."

Jeremie smiled knowingly. "That's what I thought, too. But it's a relatively simple procedure. It is a bit different from the Reverse Schyphozoa. The only difference is we don't need anyone else but you."

"Way cool," Ulrich smiled.

"Yeah, but the procedure's temporary. It will only last about a month. Hopefully, it'll shore up Cassidy's energy so she can at least keep to schooling. She seems energetic on Lyoko. It should keep her from blacking out when having spark-flashes."

"Uh, Ulrich, Cassidy, could I talk to you for a sec," a new voice made Cassidy jump.

The gang turned to see Yumi's brother Hiroki. He was younger than most of the lower-grade students. Ulrich and Cassidy simultaneously smiled. Odd's mouth went agape. Jeremie and Aelita smiled as well.

"Uh, well, if you really have to, yeah," Ulrich turned to his friends. "Go ahead. We'll meet you inside." Odd, Aelita, and Jeremie walked away to the cafeteria. The two turned to him.

"Well, uh, everybody says that girls really like you a lot, Ulrich. Same with you, Cassidy, but with some boys," Hiroki started.

Cassidy looked away. "Um…Odd was the best choice out of my two boyfriends."

Ulrich scratched in between his shoulder blades. "Depends on the type of girl."

"Like my sister, for example, Ulrich," Hiroki smote.

That made Ulrich stop mid-scratch. Why was he mentioning Yumi at a time like this? "Uh, sure…" He blushed. "We are boyfriend and girlfriend."

"That's right," Cassidy nodded.

"And William, too, Cassidy."

Cassidy stiffened and opened her mouth, about to lunge. Then she stopped. She knew Hiroki didn't know about Lyoko and never would. According to her visions journals, she didn't see a vision of him inside the factory, but the burning intuition told her that with her, he might find out someday. She took some deep breaths and counted to ten in her mind. "Okay, um…he wasn't the best choice, Hiroki. He brutally broke up with me on false charges, remember? You were there, Yumi told me." She could feel her innards shaking.

He reached up, as if he was a small child. Cassidy knew what that meant. She could trust him as her friend's brother. She bent down and gingerly wrapped her long arms around his small body and felt his small arms around her mid-lower back above the scar she had received from the vine attack a few months ago. She found after a few seconds that she could breathe again. She could feel his small hand gently rubbing her back in the spots she could tolerate.

After they released each other, Cassidy blinked and her eyes were a lighter shade of brown. "Let me guess on this one, you have a crush on Milly, but don't know what to say to her."

Hiroki and Ulrich's mouths dropped open. Ulrich knew that Cassidy had powers, but she dropped the bombshell like no other.

"It's okay, I never told her. Besides, the last time I had an interview with her was when Sissi was editor-in-chief, and that was almost two months ago," Cassidy nodded. "Anyway, you need to know that she's into journalism. So I carried my notes from my old school to here." She handed him an old red notebook. "Everything from the Second Amendment to how to avoid libel is in this notebook. Now remember these six words: Who, What, When, Where, Why, How. Every word is _super_ important. Who is around the event? What is happening? When is it happening? Where is the event? Why is the event happening? How is it happening? Give her your first scoop and you'll guarantee a growing relationship."

Hiroki smiled and raced off to find his first scoop.

Ulrich blinked at her. "Uh…"

She looked to him. "You okay, Ulrich? You look like your brain has been short-circuited for a few seconds."

Everything poured out of his mouth. "How did you do that? That, that notebook thing? I thought you said that you didn't have powers before you came here."

"I didn't. I never had powers before I came here. I just brought my note beforehand in case I took a journalism class, Ulrich. I never thought I would need it to give to someone until my powers—then intuition—came."

He simply nodded.

"Let's hit to the cafeteria. Something tells me that the hot chocolate is very good today." She took Ulrich's hand and raced off to the steps.

Once settled with their usual meals, Ulrich and Cassidy met up with Odd, Jeremie, and Aelita and sat down with them.

"What did Hiroki want to talk to you two about?" Jeremie finished drinking to ask.

"Ah, he's flipped over Milly," Cassidy smiled. "Luckily, I had just the thing to help him."

"Well, isn't that cute," Odd quipped.

"What did you give him? Advice?" Jeremie asked out of concern.

"Yes, that, but also a notebook for him to study from to understand journalism." She picked up her croissant.

"But isn't the guy a little young for her?" Odd asked.

Cassidy pointed her index finger, still holding her croissant. "Hey, I went out with you, and I'm older than you."

"That's right," Aelita smiled. "And to answer you, Odd: No, he's not. He's just a little small for his age, and, what's more, he skipped a grade in school."

Odd wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "But he acts even younger than his age."

"Well, around me, he's also sympathetic," Cassidy remembered the hug he gave her earlier.

Ulrich tapped Jeremie's arm with his elbow. "Hey, Jeremie, tell us about these new ideas of yours."

Jeremie put down his bowl. "Well, okay. Whenever a human being is virtualized, he or she emits a binary residue, which, we can say, manifests itself an emanation of his or her physical person re-sequenced into a sort of digital format."

Odd dropped his bowl to his tray. Cassidy nearly fainted in exhaustion.

"Yeah, in English," Ulrich asked. "You just lost Cassidy, as well."

"Sorry, Cassidy," Jeremie blinked.

"When you go to Lyoko, you leave a kind of digital trace," Aelita translated. "Something like a scent."

Cassidy stood up and shook her head to clear itself from the techno-babble. Then she sat down. "Sorry. Lately, paying attention to your talk exhausts my brain."

"It's fine, Cassidy."

"Couldn't you have said that in the first place?" Ulrich took a swig of his hot chocolate.

"Mm…no. Anyway, I came up with a program that is based on Mr. Hated's DNA sequence that I recorded when he went to Lyoko for the first time. If I upload it onto the Skid's sonar, we can hunt for him on the network every time we go there, and finally find out where Mr. Hated really is," Jeremie smiled.

"So, what you're saying is the Skid will become a sniffer-sub," Odd lifted up a piece of his buttered croissant to his lips.

"That's right, Odd," Jeremie adjusted his glasses. "And since we don't have class this afternoon, I was going to suggest we try it out."

"Way to go, Jeremie," Cassidy smiled.

"The second idea is that Cassidy's nightmares could be weakened by way of the Reverse Schyphozoa. Only thing is, Cassidy needs to go in by herself. The solution is temporary, but it should put color into her. People think she is albino and translucent nowadays."

"I'm not albino and translucent, I'm just pale and sweaty," Cassidy protested.

**-With Yumi-**

Yumi was studying her notes. She had a history test coming soon and she needed to study the concepts of World War I. She walked up to the vending machines and ordered her drink.

Out from the daylight, from the bushes stepped a dog-shaped figure. It jumped onto the stony bench, wriggled into Yumi's bag and grabbed a dark-looking book. It walked out, until, suddenly…

"Kiwi, what do you think you are doing?!" Yumi protested.

Kiwi raced away, book in tow.

"Hey! I don't have time to play, Kiwi!" Yumi yelled as she chased after him. _Why did Odd let Kiwi out? Oh, he's doomed to trouble now!_ "Give that back to me right now!"

**-With Ulrich, Cassidy, and Odd-**

"You seem far away, Ulrich," Odd noted as he, Cassidy, and Ulrich were walking. "And so do you, Cat-Lover-Girl."

"It's nothing. It's something Hiroki said to us," Cassidy sighed.

"Oh, yeah? What was that?" Odd asked.

"Eh…nothing. Forget about it."

Suddenly, Kiwi burst out from around the corner and bowled Cassidy over. The two fell to the ground with a thud. "What's Kiwi doing here?!" Cassidy yelled. She heard a thick object hit the ground.

_S-Sorry, Cassidy, I gotta run!_

Her heart hammered. "Kiwi, what the heck did you do?!"

However, little Kiwi had dashed by in a flash.

"What's wrong with Kiwi? Did Sissi find him chewing her underwear or something?" Odd asked as he grabbed Cassidy's hand and pulled her up.

Suddenly, Yumi raced up. "Your little dog is _so_ in for it, Odd," she muttered as she passed by.

"Hey! Yumi, hold on!" Ulrich reached for her, but she was already a few feet from him.

"What in the world was Kiwi doing out of the dorm?" Cassidy raised a brow.

"I remember locking the door," Odd shrugged. "Maybe he wanted to play a game."

"He's suffering loneliness? I play with that diggity dog every day. He shouldn't feel lonely," Cassidy whispered heatedly.

"Maybe he got bored."

"I entertain him every day as well. Tug-of-war, fetch in the park, everything. He fills the void in my heart because I can't access my own cat Thunder!"

Odd's eyes suddenly widened, as if withholding some bad news.

"Odd, what's wrong?"

He blinked and shook his head. "It's nothing, Cat-Lover-Girl."

She looked down and saw a thick-bound book. Ulrich picked it up. "Is this yours, Odd?"

Odd shook his head once again. "Are you kidding me? A notebook with a dark cover and a flower is not my style."

"I have a 'feeling' that Kiwi is in trouble now. And since killing him would break you, Yumi would go over and yell at you, Odd," Cassidy suddenly gasped. "ODD! You gotta hide!"

Ulrich thumbed through the pages.

"Ulrich, don't! That…"

But it was too late. Ulrich found a page with a picture of him. He gasped at his almost growly expression, the way the sun hit him just right, and his sitting position. His photo self had an elbow on his knee. The other hand was balanced on what he assumed was the ground.

Odd looked over his roommate's shoulder. "Hey, that's a pretty good shot of you. Who's your secret admirer, huh? Let me see."

Ulrich jumped and rose to his feet. Cassidy reached for the book when he whipped it away. "Ulrich! I know who that book belongs to! Now give it to me so I can give it to its rightful owner."

Suddenly, a gust of wind opened the book to show a picture of Cassidy. Her eyes were white and her hair was wild, as if her mind was troubled and she was trying to hide it.

Ulrich quickly snapped the book shut.

"It's Yumi's, right?" Odd couldn't help be curious.

"It's her diary. That's why she was running after Kiwi," Ulrich realized.

Odd's mind started to get into a devious plan. "If you ask me, this is a great chance to see what else she thinks of you."

"Oh, no! What's written inside here is none of my business. I don't want to risk our relationship just because I invaded her privacy."

Cassidy growled. "I can rally this back to Yumi's place if you just allow me to have her diary."

"And risk getting caught by Yumi's mom?"

"Yumi's mother has no qualms against me."

"Qualms?" Odd quirked a brow.

"Has no unease—she's not uncertain about me. I can tell her almost anything—school, writings, dreams."

"Not about Lyoko, right?" Ulrich asked.

"Never about Lyoko. I wouldn't EVER do that."

Odd shrugged, a devious smile growing on his lips. His tone was enticing. "Are you sure, Ulrich?"

"Yes, Odd the Bajo!" Cassidy yelled.

Odd went up on his tip-toes and gave her a Gibbs-slap. "Watch your Spanish! There are other students present."

"Hey, Odd, cool it. Cassidy's had a bad couple of months. First Will—I mean, Mr. Hated—kisses her on Lyoko, lands her in shock, returns and attacks her and Aelita, then flirts with her every time she and he are alone no matter what her defense, then we find she's having difficult nightmares, adding to her pile of stress, plus school and everything…" Ulrich listed. "And when she and Aelita are alone with him, he always wants to throw them both into the digital sea."

"Okay, okay, but her Spanish hurt that time," Odd sighed, and then turned to Cassidy. "I'm sorry. It just threw me into the offended line, that's all."

"I'm sorry, too, Odd. Just what Ulrich said, plus Jeremie being right about me being a bit cranky…? At least I'm able to control myself around the teachers. I truly tried to go to Mr. Klotz about my nightmares, but instead, he kicked me straight out. Apparently, Emily mentioned his fear of rats to his face that day."

After morning classes, Odd, Ulrich and Cassidy came out of their class to see Yumi chewing on a fingernail. "This isn't good," Cassidy shook her head. "When Yumi repeats an old habit that died young, she's stressed."

The two boys were already ahead of her as they stepped into the older female's line of vision. "Hi, Yumi," Odd said.

"Hey, Yumi. What is it? You look angry," Ulrich tried to act.

Cassidy walked around so she could be in the middle. "Was it Kiwi?"

Yumi nodded solemnly. "He stole…something important to me, and he lost it."

Her heart pounded so hard. She wanted to tell her best friend what had happened and that her diary was in a safe and secure state. Ulrich looked to her and gave her a soft but slight shake of the head. Cassidy made a face as if to say, "Why not?!" but Ulrich turned his head back to Yumi.

He then opened his bag and reached inside it. "Look, Yumi, I uh…"

"Okay," a familiar voice made him stop in his track. He looked to see the blonde genius and his pink-haired sweetheart come up next to him. "I got it. I upgraded the Skid's sonar and made the program for a solo Reverse Schyphozoa. We're all set."

"All set for what?" Yumi's eyes locked onto Jeremie.

"First, Einstein made our Skidbladnir into a bloodhound to find Mr. Hated, and may have found a way to temporarily cure my nightmares," Cassidy summarized.

"Oh, cool," Yumi said drily.

Ulrich had to pitch in. "By the way, Yumi…"

"Cassidy!" A newer, younger voice made Cassidy jump. She whirled to see Hiroki.

"Hey, Hiroki," Cassidy smiled. "What's up?"

Hiroki scratched at the back of his head. "Well, I gave Milly my scoop."

"And, did she like it?"

"Let's just say she loves me for it," Hiroki smiled.

Cassidy's heart lifted in joy. "You mean like, right?"

"No, she told me in these exact words: 'Hiroki Ishiyama, I love you for this scoop. We were looking for one for two days. Thank you.'" He turned around to leave. "I'm going to look around for another one. Thank you, Cassidy!"

"De—I mean, you're welcome, Hiroki. Godspeed, my friend's brother!" Suddenly she felt a hand at her hair. Then that hand patted it. "That'll do, Cassidy. That'll do," Yumi's voice was warm.

"Ulrich, Cassidy, and I have to talk about something—over there. We'll talk to you guys later." Odd took the two by the hand.

Yumi nodded. "We'll be in the lunchroom."

The three assembled deeper near the arches. Odd quirked a brow. "So, what's the deal? I thought you were going to return the diary."

"I would've done it if _some_body didn't give me the shake-head gesture," Cassidy looked at Ulrich crossly, spraying the unfortunate boy with saliva. "I keep telling you, I'm not the prying girl type! I'm not like Sissi!"

Ulrich wiped a bit from his cheeks. "Well, you saw how Hiroki came in and gave the good news. He was very satisfied. If I had given the diary back to her then, he would've thought that I stole it."

"Yeah, so?" Odd's brow was at the peak.

"What if we fix it up so Kiwi finds the diary and you give it to her yourself, Odd," Ulrich smiled.

Cassidy gasped. "That—might not be such a bad idea after all, Ulrich."

"That's two birds with one stone. She gets her diary back, and you get to keep your dog a secret," Ulrich smiled. "Pretty good idea, huh?"

Odd frowned. "Yeah, great, but—how do you plan to do it?"

"Just listen to maestro Ulrich here," Cassidy gestured to her not-too-close friend.

Ulrich grabbed the diary from his pack and, from behind him, handed it to Odd, who stowed it away into his shirt. "Hide the diary under a pile of leaves in the park, near the garden shed. Then get Kiwi. Cassidy and I will deal with—no wait, I will deal with Yumi. Cassidy, you get Kiwi."

"Done," Cassidy smiled. "Battle stations, guys, we're going to go a bit sideways."

Ulrich could only snort.

**-With Yumi-**

Yumi walked up the steps to the lunchroom when she saw Cassidy and Ulrich race off into the park. Cassidy's pink backpack was wiggling, but she looked to be ignoring it.

Yumi cocked a brow. What in the world was going on now? First, her diary gets stolen by Kiwi, and now Cassidy and Ulrich look to be having fun. Then again, why was Cassidy's backpack wiggling?

**-Back to the plan-**

Kiwi dug through the leaves. _I hope I find Yumi's diary. She's going to skin me if I don't._

"Hey, don't worry about it, Kiwi," Cassidy smiled. "A dog's nose is stronger than a human's."

_I don't see it here. I'll go check another pile._ Kiwi romped off to another tree.

"Good idea, Kiwi," Cassidy whispered.

"You can still read his mind?" Ulrich asked.

Cassidy jumped. "I can't help myself. I gained the power to read minds for a purpose, I believe. My powers have me in all sorts of directions. I tried to get new management, but it just got worse."

_I think I found it—Ah, no, wait, it was a dead snake. Its head is chopped off. Garter snake._

Odd walked up to the two as Ulrich looked behind him. "Which one did you put it in?"

"Ah, Kiwi will find it soon enough. You'll both see," Odd smiled.

_I found it at last!_ Kiwi woofed.

"Way to go, my little diggity dog!" Odd cheered.

"Way to go, my friend's little diggity dog!" Cassidy cheered at the same time.

Kiwi raced back with the book in his mouth. _I'm so happy, yes!_ He dropped it at his master's feet, panting so jovially.

Odd picked it up, but when he opened the book, his eyes widened. The inside pages were missing.

"'Mind telling me what you're doing?" Yumi's voice came over the two boys and only girl's shoulder.

Cassidy cringed. "We were trying to find your diary for you, since Kiwi lost it. He found it on his own, but seemed to uh—lost the…"

Yumi's eyes found the empty shell of the book.

"I know this looks bad, but, the thing is, we will not give up until later on to get your diary back, okay? There will be restitution," Cassidy tried to sound reasonable, but her shaking body made her words sound weak.

"Okay…" Yumi then walked away.

Ulrich looked at Odd crossly. He looked back innocently. "Don't look at me like that. It was all there when I hid it."

Later on at the factory, the elevator opened to the lab. Only Jeremie walked out. "Get to the scanner room. I'll start up the virtualization process. We'll do the Dream Barrier Destroyer after the mission."

Odd lifted his elbow and hit the button. The elevator closed on them. Suddenly Cassidy blinked a few times, shivering a little.

"What is it, Cassidy?" Aelita looked to her.

"Something is about to go wrong on this mission. I just have the feeling," Cassidy sighed.

"Don't worry. We'll find Mr. Hated, bring him back, and everything will go back to almost normal," Ulrich walked around to pat her on the back.

Cassidy whispered to herself, "Mr. Hated is going to be there."

Soon, the elevator stopped at the scanner room. Ulrich, Odd, and Aelita each walked into a scanner. Jeremie sounded from above them. _"All set? I'll launch the procedure. For once, it won't be ladies first."_

The scanners closed around them. _"Transfer, Ulrich, transfer, Odd. Scanner, Ulrich, scanner, Odd. Virtualization."_

The two boys descended onto Sector 5's Arena. Odd looked to Ulrich. "Yumi's in a foul mood. We need to find the rest of her diary."

"And how is she going to react when she finds out you hid it in the first place?"

"Hey, this was _your_ idea, Mr. Steady," Odd pointed a claw at him.

They heard a soft whooshing sound and three girls dipped onto the floor. Cassidy rose up first. "I think I'll share Yumi's NavSkid."

"Sounds good to me," Yumi nodded. "I sometimes hate to be alone."

"I'm with you," Ulrich smiled at her, his virtual heart going aquiver.

"I know, but Cassidy already called dibs."

"What's more, with the bad feeling I had today, I think it's best if I go with her," Cassidy nodded.

The wall opened up. "Let's go," Yumi said as they all raced to the access hall. They didn't look a second time as they dashed to the edge of the platform and smoothly came to a halt. Then, they heard Jeremie's voice. _"Ladies, tomboys, and gentlemen, your elevator's waiting."_

An elevator descended for them. As soon as it landed in the right spot, the Lyoko Warriors each walked onto the floor. Everyone was smoothly lifted onto the second floor. Then, the elevator stopped at the hangar where they rushed off.

_"Everyone, get on a teleport spot,"_ Jeremie ordered.

They raced to get onto one. Cassidy and Yumi shared one, thanks to the spacious design plans dutifully made by Aelita.

_"Energize."_

One-by-one, bright, white columns flashed up from the teleport spots, making the occupants disappear. Aelita energized into the captain's hub. Odd and Ulrich each appeared in the single NavSkids while Yumi and Cassidy materialized into the double.

_"Everybody ready? Stand by for lift-off. Releasing supports now."_

The docking supports released and the Skid was green-lit to go. Aelita gingerly pushed the red button and grasped the thruster. "Vertical propulsion operational."

On the outside on the wings of the Skidbladnir, four little engines went from the side to the top of a sort of C. Virtual fire shot down from both.

Inside the cockpit, Aelita pulled back on the thrusters. "Lift-off!"

The Skid shot up through the North Pole.

_"Get ready to dive into the Digital Sea,"_ Jeremie ordered.

Soon, the Skid went outside of Lyoko, dove to the digital sea, hovered for a moment, and then dove in.

_"Holoweb system, connected."_

The Skid floated outside of the Lyoko network. "We left Lyoko, Jeremie." Aelita gently pulled at a lever. "Rotation. Turbo propeller launched."

The Skid glided smoothly through the Digital Sea.

**-In the lab-**

Jeremie inserted a CD and typed on some keys. "I'm running the program. Stand by to receive initial coordinates."

_"Roger,"_ Aelita replied as he hit the enter key.

A window popped up on the screen with a red exclamation point. Jeremie threw his hands up to his face. "Oh, no!"

**-Back in the Skid-**

Aelita pulled up a blue holographic screen. Three parts of the ship were blinking crimson red. "What's going on here?"

"Is there a bug?" Cassidy asked.

"A problem, Princess?" Odd asked from his NavSkid.

Aelita typed on the screen. "We've got a system error. I think the Skid has a malfunction apart of its sensory capacity."

_"Yes, I see, Aelita. It's my program that bugged up the Skid's sonar. The mission's too dangerous without sonar. You gotta end it now."_

"Roger, returning to dry dock," Aelita said as she turned the Skid around.

Odd cracked his knuckles and rubbed an eye. "Okay, the next mission: dive under my pillows and bury myself under the covers. Objective: A good night's sleep to clear my head."

"My next mission: Use the Dream Barrier Destroyer and hopefully have some sweet dreams for once," Cassidy growled. "Having same nightmare number umpteen is really annoying. Objective is in the mission statement."

The azure sea changed into a crimson color.

_"Sorry, but you're going to have to postpone your nap, Odd. And we're going to have to postpone the Destroyer, too, Cassidy. I've got three Kongres heading straight for the Skid."_

Aelita pulled down three little levers. "NavSkids away."

Yumi and Cassidy's NavSkid shot up and out first. Then Ulrich and Odd followed close behind. Yumi gasped at what the two were seeing. A Kongre was coming up right in front of them. Then she pulled back on the thruster and pressed a button, her expression a growl. "Take this, Fish-face!"

The torpedo fired and hit it. It was gone within a second.

Odd looked at the bright display. "Not bad. Yumi's very effective when she's mad." Suddenly, a laser hit him from behind. It was almost like some unimaginable force was about to launch him through the windshield. He sat back up and shook his head. "I got one on my tail." He took the joystick and maneuvered it left and right to avoid another one. "It's sticking to me like glue."

Somehow, the second Kongre was able to evade the torpedo fire coming from Ulrich's NavSkid. With a few manipulations of the levers, He finally hit his mark. "Yeah, bull's eye!"

"Nice one, good buddy," Odd smiled at his charge.

Ulrich looked at the NavSkid, an idea forming in his head. "Wanna team up for the last one?"

Odd's voice was jubilant as he flipped his around. "Yeah, let's do it!"

They each fired their torpedoes. "FIRE!" they cried simultaneously. Ulrich and Odd missed as it fired its laser at them. They split apart, causing the monster to swim around in confusion. Suddenly Ulrich's NavSkid turned around and then Odd's. They both fired at the same time, and the monster imploded.

"YAHOO!" Odd cried in victory.

**-Back in the Lab-**

Jeremie smiled and nodded his head. "Nice job, guys. Time to come home now."

**-Back to Aelita-**

Aelita pulled on the tiny levers again. "NavSkids in!"

Odd and Ulrich returned to their position on the Skidbladnir.

Suddenly a red dot appeared where the top NavSkid would've been. "Hey! Where are Yumi and Cassidy?" Aelita asked.

**-Back to the lab-**

Jeremie blinked. "Huh?" The screen wasn't issuing off an answer for him. "I don't get it. I don't have any trace of them." He took off his glasses and leaned his head back. "I lost them."

**-Back to the Skid-**

"They must've got hit by a Kongre," Aelita worried.

Ulrich's eyes were wide. "But…that's impossible."

This time, Odd's voice was soft. "Einstein, you think they've been virtualized for good?"

**-Back in the lab-**

Jeremie looked at the data from the fight. "No, I—I don't think so. The data recording doesn't show any sign of them having been eliminated." He kept typing on the keys.

_"That means they're still on board their NavSkid. Somewhere in the middle of the Digital Sea,"_ Aelita concluded.

"Right, but the Skid is in no condition to find them. You guys have to come back in for me so I can launch a repair program."

**-Back to the Skid-**

Ulrich pounded the side of his NavSkid with his right fist. "What?! No way!" He withdrew his fist. "We can't just leave them behind, even if Cassidy's annoying at times."

Aelita closed her eyes, thinking profoundly. "Ulrich, no one is leaving anyone, but all of us run the risk of being virtualized forever with the Skid's systems down."

Ulrich closed _his_ eyes, and then said, "Yeah, you're right. We better go."

**-Later-**

The elevator opened up and Ulrich rushed out. "How long will it take you to fix it?"

"Reprogramming the sonar is linked to balancing the bi-polarity of flux on the one hand. On the other…" Jeremie began to elucidate.

"Just tell us when we can go back, okay?!" Ulrich sounded tense.

"Soon, as long as you let me concentrate," Jeremie looked at him annoyed.

He didn't seem relaxed when a warm hand met his shoulder. "Don't worry, Ulrich. I'll help him. I'll call you as soon as we know."

Ulrich only nodded while Odd smiled.

In the crimson sea, a voice called out, "Can anybody hear us? This is Yumi."

"And this is Cassidy. Oh, no, I knew it was going to go wrong. Why didn't I trust my spark-flash?"

"We don't know where we are." Then, Yumi spotted the energy level on their screens. "We're in trouble. We're almost out of power. Can you hear us?! Answer us! Somebody, please answer us!"

Cassidy started to shiver. "I'm getting a bit cold."

Yumi wrapped an arm around her friend and brushed her hand through her hair, humming the tune _Chase the Morning_.

Meanwhile, Kiwi sniffed around. He knew he had to find the middle part of Yumi's diary. He just needed to follow his nose.

Ulrich, however, leaned against a tree. "What a nightmare!" he lamented. He had lost his girlfriend and his friend in the same NavSkid at the same time.

Odd smiled, optimistic. "Oh, relax. You heard what Einstein said. They aren't gone from the network. We'll bring Yumi and Cassidy back, don't worry."

Ulrich held some of his hair. "But—Cassidy was one of your girlfriends."

"I know, but she is still a friend," Odd smiled.

Kiwi dug into the leaves again. Suddenly, he started barking jovially. He brought over what looked to be a bound pack of papers to Odd. "Hey, what have you got there, Kiwi?" He looked at the packet and his eyes widened. "Ulrich, this is Yumi's diary."

"What?"

Odd nodded. "I get it. The diary and the binding got separated, and Kiwi dug it back up right where we are sitting now."

Ulrich grabbed the diary from Odd's hands. "That's great. We found her diary, but now we lost Yumi _and_ Cassidy."

Back into the digital network, Yumi called out, "Jeremie, Aelita, can you hear us? This is Yumi and Cassidy. We're almost out of power…" Then Yumi felt the temperature drop. "It's cold here, and… We feel all alone…" She pulled Cassidy close and huddled with her, closing her eyes.

On the other hand, Cassidy visibly shivered. "I want to go back to Earth, Yumi. I don't know where to go to get back to Lyoko…"

"Everything will be okay," Yumi tried to be positive. "The cold is probably messing with your powers, like how your Time can."

Suddenly a Kongre swam in close to the girls. Yumi gasped, opening her eyes. Her right hand grasped the thruster in between them. "Okay, Yumi, you two have only one torpedo left, so don't waste it." She pressed the red button, but nothing happened. "Oh, no, not enough power."

Cassidy typed on her side of the keys. "We sh-should be able to g-get more power if one of us deactivates half of the shield."

"There's a double shield on this NavSkid?" Yumi looked to her.

"Since this is a double, yes. Same with the other double NavSkid. It's stronger that way. The two single NavSkids have standard shielding," Cassidy whimpered a little near the end.

The Kongre fired, but Yumi spun the ship around. "We're not done yet."

Her stomach spun. "Yumi, warn me next time you do that, please?"

"Will do. Sorry."

Cassidy finished typing in the code to deactivate some of the power in the shield. Sure enough, the shield strength flourished to about half the power they needed.

The monster fired again, but Yumi moved the ship to the right. "Yes. Okay, you and us." She moved the thruster around and pressed the red button again. "Fire!" She murmured.

The torpedo made its way to the monster, and hit it squarely.

Suddenly, in the lab, there was a red circle on the location screen. Jeremie typed as Aelita stood by, running program after program, when… "Huh?!" He sounded elated.

"What was that?" Aelita asked.

"An explosion by a NavSkid torpedo!" Jeremie answered.

"Yumi and Cassidy!" she rejoiced as she whipped out her cell phone, typed in a number, and put it up to her ear. She had to hug herself to keep from going too excited.

**-Back with Odd and Ulrich-**

Kiwi snored, glad to have found the pages, Odd slept, and Ulrich was awake when his cell phone rang. He rose to his feet and placed it on his ear. "Yes, Aelita?" he sounded desperate. After a pause, he said, "Huh? Okay, we're on our way." He hung up and looked back at Odd. "They found Yumi and Cassidy." But then he gasped when he realized Odd was gone like the wind. "Odd?"

"Well…?" Odd stood by the open sewer, tapping his foot, having his hands in his hoodie pocket.

Back in the NavSkid, Yumi and Cassidy started to look tired out. Cassidy sighed. Her mind was racing. She couldn't believe that she had come all this way to end up being virtualized for eternity. Even her powers, always telling her of good and bad events to come, were of no comfort. _Pity the backseat,_ she thought.

A voice came through the dark clouds of despair, making her jump. "I want to go home."

She looked back at Yumi, now looking down.

Inside Yumi's mind, she flashed back to the day Yumi had had enough of her parents arguing. Her mother had come upstairs to calm her down, though she was crying. She had proposed to go live at Kadic, fed-up with the false promises that they would stop fighting soon. Then a little voice carried itself to her ears. "Yumi, who am I going to play with if you go away?"

More tears fell from Yumi's eyes that day.

Another flashback happened in which Hiroki needed help with his English assignment. "No, Hiroki, foot becomes feet in the plural."

Hiroki looked to her. "How do you know all that, Sis?" he asked innocently.

Yumi merely smiled.

Another flashback involved lunch at home. Yumi tapped out a message to Hiroki. Then he tapped one in a reply. Mr. and Mrs. Ishiyama turned their attention to their children. "Oh, what are you children up to this time?" Mrs. Ishiyama asked.

All of a sudden, Yumi burst out laughing, and Hiroki followed suit. They were happy that their parents didn't know of their secrets.

The next flashback was at the pool. Yumi was staring at her watch when Hiroki surfaced. "Well…? How long?"

"Oh, at least ten minutes," Yumi smiled.

"Wow!" He smiled.

Out of her flashbacks, she whispered, "Hiroki."

Cassidy couldn't flashback the way that Yumi could.

Suddenly, a laser hit them wayside. They gasped when they looked to the side.

At the Lab, Jeremie muttered to himself. "Come on… Come on…"

The elevator opened to reveal Odd, Ulrich, and Kiwi. Without looking back, the genius said, "Yumi and Cassidy sent us a message, guys."

"Great, we'll go and get them," Odd smiled.

"I have to finish the calculations first. I've isolated the area, but it'll be impossible to find their exact location before I fix the Skid's sonar," Jeremie informed.

"But if they fired a torpedo, that means they are in a jam."

Aelita showed him a look. "I transposed the data of the explosion into the Holoweb to get their location via triangulation."

Then the location device picked up a green arrow. "There they are! They must've gotten sucked into a Hub. That's why we lost all trace of her." Jeremie smiled.

Ulrich, however, looked solemn.

"But the sonar is still down, guys," Jeremie frowned. "So going under right now is going to be a big risk."

Odd smiled. "I'll go."

"Count me in," Ulrich agreed.

Aelita came in. "Well, what are we all waiting for?" She turned around and smiled.

A few minutes later, the Skid was off on the hunt to find their missing members. "There's a Hub dead ahead."

_"I read you, Aelita. I'm entering the coordinates from where the girls fired their torpedo."_

They hovered over the Hub. "Hyper fluid aspiration in 3 seconds. Hang on tight!" They dived in.

Meanwhile, Yumi and Cassidy were trying to get away from the new Kongre that came after its brethren died. Suddenly Cassidy's eyes sparked in a flash that was shown this time to Yumi. It showed the Skid going into the Hub.

"Our cavalry's arriving?" Yumi asked.

"I think so," Cassidy shook out of it.

It came close, but Yumi sped up. Cassidy tried to hold on tight. She was used to high speeds, but sudden stops would make her super tense. Another laser connected to their NavSkid. Cassidy gripped the thrusters tightly as it spun around. The girls let out yelps as it stopped. Soon they were face-to-face with the monster. "It's all over. What's he waiting for?"

It looked off to the side and swam off. In the distance, William was in his vehicle, the Rorkal. He fired his torpedoes.

Yumi and Cassidy held each other, bracing each other for impact when, unbeknownst to the girls, the Skidbladnir rose up. The three torpedoes hit it instead of the damaged NavSkid. Yumi opened her eyes. Why weren't they eternally virtualized? She looked to the side to see the Skid. "Well, Yumi and Cassidy…"

Cassidy and Yumi gasped in joy. The brown-haired purple cat warrior's brown eyes twinkled. "Aelita, thank God!"

"…thought you'd wander off without telling us where you were?" Aelita asked.

"It took you long enough to get here," Yumi breathed.

Cassidy's calf muscles tensed in excitement. "Aelita, you are the best!"

Meanwhile the two other NavSkids were out and running at William and the Kongre.

"I'm glad we can rest easily for now, Aelita," Cassidy smiled.

The torpedoes hit the NavSkids in the nose. The Kongre and William kept firing their stuff. Odd and Ulrich maneuvered their way back and forth, dodging lasers and torpedoes. Then they split up.

Odd moved his thruster. "I'm in the mood for some fish soup." He pressed the red button. The torpedoes glided toward it, but it ducked. Using a targeting scope, he fired again. "Guess I better cook it down, first." He finally hit it. It disintegrated. Then Odd turned back around.

To Ulrich, Odd yelled, "Ulrich, behind you!"

Ulrich looked back and heard two torpedoes firing. He dodged and evaded. He groaned.

A NavSkid met up with him. "We can't leave you alone for a minute, huh, Ulrich?"

William growled menacingly.

They sped off in two different directions. William looked back and forth, and then growled. Where did they both go? XANA would be disappointed.

Ulrich looked at the positioning device between his legs. He sighed. "Okay, he's behind Odd." He turned around so he was behind William. "Big mistake, William!" He pressed the red button. "Fire!"

It hit him from behind and his Rorkal disintegrated. The two rallied to the Skid. "Mission accomplished, Jeremie," Ulrich said.

_"Hey, great job. Now anchor yourselves to the Skid and head back in. Ah, they're all coming home."_

Aelita looked in the cockpit. "Not everybody. But one day, we'll bring you back, William," she said softly enough to not get heard by Cassidy.

Once out of the scanners, Cassidy looked to Yumi. "Is it okay if I go sleep over with you?"

"Yep. We're all set," Yumi nodded. "Plus with what happened today, a sleepover will be fine."

_"Okay, Cassidy. Are you ready for the Dream Barrier Destroyer test?"_ Jeremie asked.

Cassidy nodded. Odd looked up. "She's ready, Einstein."

She walked into the tubular scanner, hands shaking. "There are no side effects, right, Jeremie?"

_"Right. Don't worry."_

The scanners closed. As she was scanned head-to-foot, she felt more and more energy be put inside her. Her eyes went alight with life. A smile grew on her face. Her color went back to a pinkish tone. When the scanner doors opened, she jumped out, ready to conquer whatever XANA put in front of her. "Man, that was AWESOME!" Cassidy roared excitedly.

That night, Cassidy and Yumi made it back to the Ishiyama Residence. On her bed was the middle part of Yumi's diary. "There was restitution!" Cassidy's heart leapt in joy. _Ulrich, you dog. _

"You seem better," Yumi smiled.

"I'm feeling better."

Outside, Ulrich was walking to the school, humming a tune.


End file.
